


Losers (In Love)

by aquietdin



Category: Danny Phantom
Genre: Canon Compliant, F/M, Fluff, Humor, Hurt/Comfort, Light Angst, Mutual Pining, Oneshot Series
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-13
Updated: 2020-07-14
Packaged: 2021-03-04 06:00:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 12
Words: 22,167
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24698713
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aquietdin/pseuds/aquietdin
Summary: A set of short one-shots about Danny and Sam.
Relationships: Danny Fenton/Sam Manson
Comments: 43
Kudos: 126





	1. Cold

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Takes place a few months after the end of the series.

When he’d finally unleashed his ice powers, he’d thought that was the end of being sensitive to cold. Why would cold affect a creature who had a core of ice? It wouldn’t, obviously. So he should have been fine.

He was not fine.

Danny was cold, wet, tired, miserable, and  _ so cold. _

It was bad enough that Skulker had dragged him out of a dead sleep in the middle of the night, but that wasn’t all. It had started raining almost immediately after he went to chase the hunter ghost, a late autumn freezing sleet that crawled under his skin and chilled him to the bone. And Skulker, of course, wanted to lead him across the city and back before Danny managed to shove him back into the thermos.

“Ass,” he grumbled, looking down at the ghost trap on his hip.

He had a test tomorrow in third period, which he’d actually managed to properly study for. But now that it was - he glanced at the giant clock on the city hall tower as he passed - quarter to four, he would be lucky if he could stay awake for it.

If he’d even make it home. He was fading in and out as he flew, almost smacking into a billboard.

Danny rubbed his eyes. Home was still several miles away.

The Manson house was just two more blocks.

The one rational brain cell that was still functioning was telling him that sneaking into his (new-ish) girlfriend’s room in the middle of the night was a bad idea, but he was cold and tired and soaking wet. Floating up to her window, Danny peeked in through the tiny part in the curtain. He could make out Sam asleep in her bed, but not much else. Except that inside her room looked warm. And dry.

He went intangible to shed the rain before phasing through the glass.

Sam’s room had that familiar scent of incense and licorice that followed her everywhere, and the comfort of it instantly made him even more drowsy. Sam was cocooned in blankets, her breathing soft and even in the quiet room. Warm. He just wanted to be warm. Just for five minutes, then he’d go home. He managed to change back to his human form, still in his pajamas, before settling on the bed next to her, curling in on himself on top of the quilt. Five minutes.

He was asleep in two.

  
  


\-----

Sam didn’t know what woke her up. She tended to sleep lightly, which was both a blessing and a curse in a place like Amity Park, where the quiet of the night was shattered by a ghost attack at least twice a month.

Her room seemed silent, from what she could tell. Just the soft hum of rain, the ticking of the clock across the room, and breathing.

_ Someone else _ breathing.

Her mattress dipping at her back.

Sam’s fight or flight kicked in at record speeds.  _ Something was in her bed. _

Holding her breath, Sam slowly reached for the Fenton Wrist Ray on her nightstand. Once it was securely in her hand, she steeled her nerves, then sat up and whipped around to point the weapon at --

A head of messy black hair, wrinkled Dumpty Humpty tee shirt, and ghost print pajama pants.

“Danny?”

He snorted softly, shifting where he was curled up in a tight ball.

Sam’s shoulders slumped. She put the Wrist Ray back on the nightstand and shook Danny’s shoulder. “What are you doing here? It’s like, four in the morning.”

He only murmured in response. Near his bare feet was the Fenton Thermos.

She sighed. “Late night hunting ghosts again?”

Danny curled tighter. “...was cold,” he slurred, still half asleep.

Moving her hand to where his arm wasn’t covered by his shirt, Sam frowned. He was chilled to the touch, his skin covered in goosebumps. She bit her lip and weighed her options. It was pouring rain outside, and if she sent him home right now, he would probably end up sick, ghost powers or no. Sam glanced at her bedroom door to confirm it was locked.

“Okay, fine,” she picked up the thermos and set it on the floor, then started dragging the comforter out from under him. “You can stay, but the second my alarm goes off, you gotta get home. My parents already aren’t keen on me dating a guy that can go through walls. They’ll  _ flip _ if they find you here.”

He hummed in response as Sam draped the quilt over them both, settling next to him. One of his arms artlessly flopped over her waist in a half-hearted attempt, Danny snuggling close until his frozen nose hit her neck. She resisted the urge to squeak and smiled.

“Goodnight, Danny,” she whispered to him with a wry smile.

“...night, Sam,” he said, so quietly she almost didn’t hear. “Love you.”

Sam’s eyes popped wide open as every bit of sleepiness vanished. She blinked down at him. Had she heard that right? Did he really say….?

She would ask him, but Danny was out like a light in her arms. So Sam just shook her head, pulled him close, and listened to his breathing.


	2. Not Crying

In the quiet of her room, Sam flopped onto her bed and pulled a pillow over her face.

She was not going to cry over a boy. Crying over boys was for ditzy girls with no minds of their own. She _refused._

It was so dumb. Seeing them together like an after school special, all cute and bubbly and happy? So, so dumb. And what made it even _more_ dumb was that Danny wanted to date a girl that quite literally wanted him dead. Sam had thought that would be a good enough argument to get him to give up on Valerie, but apparently not.

He’d had a ring for her. A _ring._

Sam sniffled wetly. Just allergies again. Not crying.

 _Not_ crying, just like how she hadn’t cried after Ember, after she’d gotten a taste of what it was like to be the center of his universe only to have no choice but destroy it herself. Like the times she’d kissed him and it meant nothing, like when he’d lost his memories of her and Sam got to experience the unique pain of being forgotten. Just like when Freakshow made a puppet of him, seeing the life fade from his eyes, the complete lack of recognition in them when he looked at her with cold indifference. Just like the dozen instances he’d ignored her to stare at Paulina, who didn’t even care that he existed, or when she’d dropped hints about the school dance until she developed a headache and _he still hadn’t gotten it._

Like all the times he’d nearly lost his life to ghosts, almost torn apart or dissolved or ripped to shreds or eaten alive -- only to make it out by the skin of his teeth so Sam could walk him home, go back to her room, and sob into her favorite black hoodie.

Those times didn’t count. Anyone would be traumatized to see their best friend almost die on a regular basis.

Best friend.

That’s all he was ever going to be.

She wasn’t sure when it had changed. Somewhere along the line he’d gone from a gangly awkward boy to something else, something strong and beautiful that made her heart thump inside her chest when he was near.

Fine. Maybe she was crying. But it was because she was tired and frustrated and stressed out, because school was hard and ghost hunting was hard and her parents were exhausting, because she still got looks if she tried to go back into the Skulk & Lurk after Kwan’s poetry disaster. Because it was rainy and cold out and her best sweater had been eaten by moths and her mom had thrown out her first pair of combat boots. Because her head hurt and her heart hurt and she hadn’t gotten any sleep lately because she was always patching up Danny after fights, bandaging his arms, rubbing the knots out of his shoulders.

Not because of a boy.

And especially not because of Danny Fenton.

  
  


\-----

  
  


The Fenton house was quiet when Danny went up to his room, locked the door, and curled up under his covers.

He was _not_ going to cry over a girl. He had no reason to. He _refused._

So Sam liked Gregor. That was _not_ the issue, not one bit - the guy was suspicious as hell. He had to be with the Guys in White, there was no way he wasn’t. And he was using Sam to get to him. He was gonna break her heart, or worse, and Danny wasn’t about to sit on the sidelines and watch it happen.

It was absolutely _not_ that he’d watched the way she’d risen up on her tiptoes to kiss him, wrapping her arms around his neck and looking like something out of a romantic movie, nothing at all like the stiff, awkward kisses she’d given him.

Those didn’t count, anyway. Fake-out make-outs.

Danny drew in a shuddering breath. Not crying. It was just cold in here.

 _Not_ crying, just like how he hadn’t cried when Ember’s spell had been broken, so haunted by the memory of having been madly in love with her, and how his heart had shattered to see her kiss Dash. Just like when Freakshow had taken over his mind, pushing his consciousness aside to make way for something hollow and sinister that had hurt her, tried to kill her, and he was nearly helpless to stop it. Like when Sam’s errant wish had wiped his memory of her, and the anguish of having forgotten her tearing at him like a knife when he tried to sleep. Just like the time Undergrowth had possessed her, making a puppet of her, seeing the life fade from her eyes, the complete lack of recognition as she was more than willing to feed him to a pack of rabid ghost plants without a second thought.

Like all the times she’d nearly lost her life because of him, those close calls that kept him up at night with a million what if scenarios, each worse than the last. What if he hadn’t been fast enough, strong enough, and the guilt of knowing that if Sam had gotten hurt, it was his fault.

Those times didn’t count. Anyone would be traumatized to see their best friend almost die on a regular basis.

Best friend.

That’s all she was ever going to be.

He wasn’t sure when it had changed. Somewhere along the line she’d gone from a grumpy, prickly punk girl to something else, something brave and beautiful that made his heart thump inside his chest when she was near.

Okay, fine, he was crying. But it was because he was tired and frustrated and stressed out, because school was hard and ghost hunting was hard and his parents were exhausting, because Dash still harassed him in the halls on such a regular basis that he could set his watch by it. Because it was rainy and cold out and his dad had found his stash of emergency sweets and decimated them, and Jazz was still determined to be his therapist. Because his head hurt and his heart hurt and he hadn’t gotten any sleep lately because there was always a new ghost to slap him around and put those he loved in danger.

Not because of a girl.

And especially not because of Sam Manson.


	3. Fake-Out

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Takes place somewhere in season 3.

Danny Fenton didn’t make a habit of wishing ill on people. Not seriously, anyway - he might hope for Dash to trip over his own feet, or for Mister Lancer to get tongue tied in front of the class, but nothing outright malicious. Especially after his experience with Sidney Poindexter, he’d learned his lesson to not let himself become the bullies that made his life hell. He just let himself have a little catharsis thinking to help him de-stress now and then, nothing more.

The Guys in White were bringing out a mean streak in him.

It was the third time this week -  _ this week _ \- that they were in Amity Park, and he was having trouble suppressing the urge to silently hex them. They were constantly interrupting his life, his school, and what had effectively become his job: ghost hunting. The GIWs had a real knack for flying in just in time to interrupt Danny’s effort to capture a ghost and make things way harder than they needed to be. And it wasn’t just Danny’s side they were a thorn in, most of the town had been subject to their specific form of uptight harassment by this point. Sam was convinced they were robots. He really couldn’t argue her point.

Especially since they’d caught sight of him while he took out the Box Ghost during lunch break.

Danny had been trying - really really trying - to keep a low profile. Spending most of his time in ghost mode invisible, hiding inside solid objects while intangible, luring ghosts away from crowds to take them down as discreetly as possible, or just plain staying out of sight. He wasn’t careful enough, apparently, and nearly got an anti-ghost blast to the face.

For Pete’s sake, he had a quiz next period. He  _ so _ did not need this.

He went invisible and zipped through the air, zig-zagging in an effort to throw them off his trail as he made his way back to Casper High. After slipping through the wall of the boy’s locker room, he confirmed it was empty before ducking into a locker to change back into human form. He paused to listen, and when he heard nothing but the dripping of the leaky showers, heaved a sigh of relief and went for the door.

The quiz. Right. He started going over history notes in his head as he made his way up the west stairwell towards class.

He spotted Sam at her locker when he turned the corner, trading out books. “Hey, Sam.”

She looked up and smiled. “Hey. You get our favorite container-based specter?”

Danny took out the Fenton Thermos and frowned at it. “He could have chosen to haunt anything, and he picked  _ boxes. _ I dunno if I'll ever understand that guy.”

Sam shut her locker and snickered. “Gotta admire the dedication. How about the GIWs?”

He sagged in place. “Getting better,” he dropped his voice a bit. “They can track me even when I'm invisible, I think.”

“Dang.” Sam frowned. “We're gonna have to come up with some new--”

“Attention Casper High students!” The PA blared. “A ghost has been sighted on school premises. Please remain calm and return to your classrooms immediately.”

Danny winced. Great.

Heavy footsteps hammered from down the hall. “This way,” a gruff voice called. “Spectral readings are increasing!” 

They were coming right towards him, and Danny felt his whole body go cold. He knew that voice. Agent K. “Oh crap.”

Before he could even contemplate going intangible and sinking through the floor, Sam had grabbed him by the wrist, pulling him down the hall and away from the voices. She stopped at a door labeled  _ janitor, _ pulled a pin from her hair, and deftly picked the lock. Danny heard a shout behind them just as Sam pulled him inside and shut the door.

The closet was cramped. So much so that as soon as Sam followed him in, Danny could barely move. The metal shelf behind him dug into his shoulder blades as she leaned into him, nowhere else to go.

“I could have phased us through the door,” he whispered.

From the sliver of light that came in through the crack beneath the door, he could see Sam shake her head. “If you use your ghost powers, they'll lock onto you. Now  _ quiet.” _

The footsteps came closer. Danny held his breath.

“I got something,” Agent K’s voice came from the hallway, right outside the door.

He felt more than heard Sam's breath hitch.

The doorknob jiggled.

It happened before he could register it: Sam's hands threading into his hair, her weight shifting, then her mouth pressing against his.

Danny squeaked. Right. Another fake-out make-out. He coiled his arms around her middle to keep her steady and waited to be caught.

But the door didn't open.

Seconds ticked by agonizingly slowly, Sam's lips still mashed against his, and Danny’s traitorous teenage brain went into overdrive. He was suddenly hyper aware of everything; the way one of her legs was beginning to tremble, the shift of her chest against his when she breathed, the soft, bare skin of the small of her back against his forearms. Her breath fanned out hot over his cheek, the smell of her skin and hair making his head spin a little.

This was way more than their usual fake-outs.

His arms tightened around her on instinct, forcing her closer, the entire length of her body pressing against his in a way that made warmth blossom inside his rib cage. He leaned forward before he could stop himself. Her mouth shifted as he did, her nails scratching against his scalp and making goosebumps prickle up over every inch of him. Danny thought he heard her sigh--

The door wrenched open with a squeal of rusty metal, light flooding in so fast that Danny jerked, squeezing Sam as his head flung back and bounced against the shelf.

Agent K stared down at them, partially blocking the light with his wide shoulders. Above his sunglasses his eyebrows were raised high. “Uh.”

Danny’s brain was more or less shut down, but Sam’s was still working enough to play the part of an interrupted lovebird. “Do you mind?”

The Guy in White sputtered. “Y-you -- you children should get to class!” Then he turned and walked briskly away.

They both held still until Agent K’s footfalls faded. Then Sam slipped out of his arms and into the empty hallway. It took Danny another ten seconds to pull himself together - almost literally, his legs nearly went intangible under him - and follow her.

“Good thing they’re easy to fluster,” Sam mused, her hand on her hip.

Danny hadn’t quite caught up yet.

Sam turned to him, and suddenly her face went  _ very _ pink. She began digging into her pockets. “Oh jeeze, sorry, lemme just-“ She pulled out a folded napkin, one of the ones from the cafeteria, and wiped at his mouth. Danny stood still and let her, more than a little dazed.

When she stopped scrubbing at his lips with the scratchy recycled paper, Danny glanced down at it to see it smeared with a familiar shade of purple.

He gulped. Her  _ lipstick. _ It had been all over his—

The hallway was way too warm all of a sudden.

Sam wadded up the napkin and stuffed it into her pocket, then cleared her throat. “We should get to class.”

He came a little bit unstuck. “Yeah,” he agreed, his voice cracking in the most embarrassing way possible. Right. Class.

After a quick trip to his own locker, they made it into the classroom just as the teacher was handing out quiz forms. Danny took his seat near the windows, Sam in hers one row over and two seats up. He found his eyes snapping to the back of her head over and over, shivering at the memory of her in his arms, too preoccupied to answer any of the questions on the paper in front of him.


	4. Controlled

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Missing Scenes from _Control Freaks._

It wasn’t like it was the first time Danny had acted weird. “Weird” was relative with him, even without ghost powers. Probably a side effect of having Jack and Maddie Fenton as parents. The fact that he managed to be some semblance of normal was probably a miracle.

But this particular form of weird - locking Lancer in a closet, rattling off Circus Gothica’s slogan in a hollow, robotic voice, and then flying off in a burst of cold wind that left Sam and Tucker glancing at each other in uncertainty - something had definitely been _off._

Sam might have been looking for an excuse to go to the circus, but this wasn’t what she had in mind.

Circus Gothica was everything she’d dreamed of, but there was no time to get distracted. Even if there was a stand selling onyx jewelry that glittered. Even if there was black licorice cotton candy. Or a performer making knives out of balloons while an organ played a haunting melody -

Focus, Sam. Focus.

The back entrance to the main tent was strangely unguarded. She had a ticket, meaning she could technically go in the front, but with the way Danny had been obsessing over the circus even more than her had raised a few red flags. Hopefully she’d be able to pick him and his bright white shirt out in the crowd of goths.

She’d underestimated the maze that backstage turned out to be. Sam could hear the crowd cheering, but she couldn’t tell how to get to them through the stacks of crates and equipment.

“What are you doing here?”

First of all: Freakshow was _way_ taller in person. Second, he was also intimidating despite looking like a toothpick in a trenchcoat. Sam probably outweighed him by five pounds. Even so, she found herself star struck in his presence. Freakshow was like a beacon of black light in the oh-so perfectly sunny suburban world she was trapped in, a waking vindication of her life choices. He got it. But she wasn’t here for him, she was here for -

“Sam?”

Stepping out of the shadows, a glowing hand pulled back a heavy hood, ruffling white hair as it went. Danny’s glowing green eyes stared at her, his eyebrows pinched in confusion.

“Danny!” Sam sighed in relief. “There you are.”

He blinked at her a few times, then glanced around, dazed. “Wait… where are we? How did I…?” He frowned at the scythe in his hands.

Behind her, Freakshow tutted. “Is that free will? Obey me, minion!”

When the ringmaster raised his staff, pulsing red in a way that was vaguely unsettling, Sam glanced back at Danny just in time to see something shift in him. He jerked, cringing, squeezing his eyes shut for a moment. When he opened them, the familiar green had bled away, replaced with red.

Sam never realized the color red could look so cold. “Danny? Danny!”

He didn’t answer, just kept staring down at her. He looked like a totally different person.

“Now,” Freakshow adjusted one of his gloves. “I think perhaps it’s time you had an assistant for your performance! Do be a good minion and use it as an opportunity to silence her.” Then he walked off, pushing aside a flap of tent fabric to disappear behind it.

Sam wanted answers. She took one step after him. “Hey, wait!”

A hand around her wrist stopped her short. Danny’s gloved fingers were wrapped tight around her arm. “Danny, what are you doing, let me go--”

She pulled, but his grip might as well have been an iron shackle. She knew he was inhumanly strong while in ghost form, but she’d never had that strength used against her before, and frankly, it was terrifying. With a jerk Danny started hauling her off in the opposite direction.

“Danny,” Sam tried, still prying uselessly at his fingers. “Danny, please!”

“Be silent, human.”

The sound of his voice made her pause, so hollow, completely devoid of his usual warmth. He sounded like a machine. What had Freakshow done to him? Danny practically dragged her to another part of the tent, this room lined with weapons and contraptions of all kinds. Sam gulped. Freakshow had told him to silence her.

“Danny,” she tried again, fear rising in her. “Danny, this isn’t you, don’t do this!”

He yanked her arm hard enough to make her yelp, forcing her in front of him. “I said, _be silent.”_

Sam stared up at him. He’d just barely begun to gain height on her in the last year, his short and skinny stature showing the tiniest hints of growth as he approached 15. But she couldn’t help but cower from him now, his red eyes locked on to her, unblinking, unfeeling. She had to get through to him somehow.

Her hand trembled as she raised it to his face, cupping his cheek with her palm. “Danny,” she kept her voice soft. “It’s me, Sam, remember? I’m your best friend.”

He finally blinked once, slowly. His eyebrows slanted. It was working.

Sam gently stroked over his cheek with her thumb. “Remember me? We met in seventh grade, in detention? You said you liked my Dumpty Humpty shirt.”

The hand that held his scythe lowered.

“We hunt ghosts together, Danny.” Sam let her nails scratch softly over the hair at his temple. “I’ve always got your back, you know that, right?”

Something almost like recognition flicked through his eyes. He released her wrist, raising his hand to push a lock of hair away from her face and tuck it behind her ear. His gaze was flicking back and forth between her eyes, the red fading.

“Sam…?” he whispered.

Inside the tent, the crowd suddenly roared and cheered. Both of them jumped in surprise, Danny reeling back to smack his palm over his face and grunt in pain.

“Danny!” Sam put her hands on his shoulders. “Stay with me, Danny!”

When he raised his head again, Sam felt her blood freeze. His eyes glowed red, any trace of her friend long gone. In a flash his hand had shot out to snatch up her arm and twist it behind her back.

“Ow!” Sam struggled. “Danny, you’re hurting me--”

His voice was right next to her ear. “I’m just getting started.”

She only saw a glimpse of the blindfold before it blocked out her vision. Sam felt her feet leave the ground and whimpered.

\-----

Being grounded for weeks didn’t seem like a very big deal in comparison to what they’d gone through. Sam flipped the page of her novel, curled up on her bed in her pajamas, not really reading it so much as scanning uselessly over the words. Her computer and phone had been taken away, and while she would be the first to claim she didn’t need them, Sam was still too keyed up from the day to find any calm in reading.

There was also the whole ‘falling from a moving train and almost dying’ part that made her fingers shake when she turned the page. That had been way too close. If Danny hadn’t regained control of himself in time…

She closed the book and tossed it to the foot of her bed, curling up on top of her comforter. Don’t think about it.

A rhythmic tapping came from her window. Sam cracked open an eye to see a familiar head of white hair behind the glass. Danny waved at her, then pointed to her room.

Being grounded didn’t matter much when one of you could turn invisible and phase through solid matter. Sam put a finger over her lips in a “hush” gesture and nodded. Danny entered, looked around, then went for her closet. A soft flash of light from under the door signaled his change just before he walked out as a human.

“Hey,” he whispered, coming to sit on the edge of her bed. “You okay?”

Sam nodded, sitting up. “Yeah,” she said softly. “Just kinda restless. I usually play Doom or something to work off the anxiety, but y’know. Grounded.”

Danny laughed a little. “Yeah, same.”

A slightly awkward silence reigned, until Danny sighed deeply and rubbed at the back of his neck. “I was hoping you could tell me what happened, Sam. What.... what I did.”

She scooted a little closer to him. “You don’t remember any of it?”

Shaking his head, Danny picked at a nail. “Not really? It kinda feels like I watched it from a waiting room TV, where you can’t really hear it but there’s no remote to turn up the volume and the screen is tiny and way up on the wall.”

“That’s a really specific analogy.”

He exhaled on a chuckle. “It’s the best way I could think to describe it.”

“Okay.” Sam sighed. “I think it started when we saw that first commercial for Circus Gothica.”

She recounted the story as best she could, though she couldn’t tell Danny what happened when she wasn’t with him. As she spoke, he wrung his hands together and bit his bottom lip.

“I hurt you, didn’t I?”

His voice was so quiet and scared. Sam put a hand on his arm.

“I know you didn’t mean to.” She wasn’t going to tell him just how much one of his ghost rays hurt. Her chest still throbbed when she breathed.

Danny took her hand and squeezed it. “You tried to snap me out of it. I remember, I knew you were in danger, but I couldn’t.... I couldn’t fight it. I’m sorry, Sam.”

She tugged at his hands and pulled him into a hug. “It’s okay, Danny.”

Danny’s arms looped around her middle, drawing her close and inhaling an unsteady breath next to her ear. Sam sank into him, her arms around his neck. He was so warm.

“Sam?” There were two rapid taps at her door before the handle began to turn.

With a tiny, high-pitched squeak, Danny went intangible and phased through her bed and out of sight, right before Sam’s mother strode in the room.

“Sam,” her mother put her hands on her hips. “It’s very late, and you’re _very_ grounded. Lights out, young lady.”

Rolling her eyes, Sam huffed. “Yes, mom.”

Before she left, her mother cast a scrutinizing glance around her room, then closed the door. Sam waited until she could no longer hear the click of her shoes.

“Coast is clear.”

The top of Danny’s head peeked out from the surface of her covers, still intangible. It made her laugh a little as he rose out and floated above the bed.

“I should probably get home,” he said softly. “My mom tends to work late, she might try to check on me.”

Sam stood and stretched, turning to gather the unread books from her bed. “Yeah. I’ll see you tomorrow, Danny.”

He smiled softly. “See ya.”

Danny phased through the wall and presumably towards his home. Sam pondered staying up just to defy her mother, but instead snuggled under her blankets and turned off the light.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Feedback is always welcome :D


	5. Patched Up

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A re-write of a scene from the beginning of _Reality Trip._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  **Content warning:** This chapter contains depictions of a dislocated shoulder being set, plus minor injuries and mentions of blood.

Though she would never admit it, there was one thing Sam Manson had inherited from her mother: a talent for whipping a crowd into a frenzy. What tone of voice to use, wording, volume. Hand gestures and posture. She’d used this unique ability at various protests before, including the one against Tucker, leading a group of ultra-recyclo vegetarians through chants like she was born to do it.

She wasn’t expecting to use it to escape government agents, but whatever.

_“Mosh pit!”_

After tossing Danny bodily at the crowd, Tucker followed, then Sam threw herself in. She’d never been a fan of crowd surfing, too many hands belonging to too many strangers all over her. A few feet ahead, Danny dipped below the horde, and Sam twisted herself to follow, landing with a thump. Tucker hit the grass next to her with an ‘oomph.’

The three of them crawled through knees and under legs towards the bleachers. Someone grabbed her hair at one point. In front of her, Danny’s movements were awkward and stuttering, his shoulders hunched. When they cleared the sea of people that were still cheering _Phantom, Phantom,_ Danny rose and immediately clutched at his left arm. Sam went to his side to ask if he was hurt.

Tucker’s arms went around them both and pushed. “Keep moving!”

So they ran. Through the wooded area that surrounded the football field, down the path, stopping on the far side of the old equipment shed.

“Danny,” Sam whispered. “Can you get us out of here?”

He was still holding his left arm. “No, that blast shorted out my powers. I can’t change.”

Sam peeked around the door. The GIWs were carving their way through the crowd, straight for them. “Then we gotta run, we’re gonna have company real soon here.”

The door she was leaning against shifted. A hand grabbed Sam by the shoulder and pulled, and if she hadn’t been in full-on stealth mode, she probably would have screamed.

It was dark inside the shed, but she could still feel the warmth of Danny and Tucker nearby. A light clicked on, blinding her for just a second. When the spots in her vision cleared, Sam’s stomach sank. On the other side of the shed was Dash, Kwan, Paulina, and at least four other members of the popular crew.

Shifting to put herself between them and Danny was half instinct. Tucker did the same, the movement looking just as automatic. Sam raised her fists. Fighting wasn’t her thing, but there was no way she was gonna let these jerks lay a hand on Danny.

“Whoa, easy,” Dash raised his palms. “We’re here to help!”

Sam blinked.

“Uh.” Tucker lowered the can of body spray he’d raised in defense. “You’re what?”

“Here to help!” Kwan piped up.

Sam kept her fists up. “You’ll have to excuse me if I find it hard to believe that the school bullies suddenly learned the meaning of altruism.”

Dash had the decency to look embarrassed. “Yeah, uh. Sorry ‘bout that.”

Then Paulina shoved him aside. “I can’t believe the ghost boy was Danny this whole time!” Clasping her hands over her heart, she sighed wistfully. _“Paulina Fenton._ I like the sound of that!”

Sam briefly saw red.

“Look, those guys in the suits, they’re after you, yeah?” Dash motioned at the door. “Hide out in here until they leave. We’ve got your back, Phantom.”

Danny, who’d been oddly quiet through the whole conversation, sighed. Sam lowered her arms and turned to him. Now that they weren’t running for their lives anymore, she could see how he was slumped in place, his right hand firmly clamped over his left bicep, his left shoulder sagging. His forehead was dotted with moisture.

“Thanks,” Danny said softly. “Tucker, Sam. Help me pop my arm back in.”

She felt herself go pale. His shoulder was dislocated again. That’s why his movements had been so awkward back by the stage. When the Guys in White had shot them all out of the air, Danny had twisted to put himself between them and the ground, breaking their fall with his own body.

Tucker moved to wrap one arm around Danny’s middle, the other palm flat against the jut of his shoulder. Sam coiled herself around his other side to steady him.

“On three, okay?” Tucker said. Danny nodded. “One, two--”

Tucker pushed, _hard,_ and the joint of Danny’s left arm snapped back into the socket with a sickening pop. He grunted, squeezing his eyes shut, trembling in her grasp for a few seconds before letting out a long breath.

It wasn’t the first time they’d set one of his bones. She’d really hoped they wouldn’t have to do it again.

Tucker stepped back, and Danny raised his left arm, experimentally rotating it at the shoulder. He nodded as a bead of sweat tracked down the side of his face. “Thanks.”

A few of the popular kids on the other side of the shed gasped. Sam ignored them in favor of their standard protocol, leading Danny away from the door and to a line of old lockers, where he slumped against them and slid to the floor. Tucker went to his left side and took off his backpack, rummaging through it for their first aid kit.

Danny may have had superior healing in ghost form, but in human form, he was just as fragile as anyone. His right elbow was slightly bloody from a long scrape, a bruise was forming on his jaw, the palm of his left hand was cut in several places. Tucker tore open a pack of powdered painkillers and handed it to Danny as Sam took out the medical wipes to clean his wounds. She was a little more practiced at field medicine than she would have liked.

“Is he gonna be okay?” Kwan asked softly.

Danny grimaced as he swallowed the powder. He hated that stuff, she knew, but it worked faster than the pills. She frowned as she wrapped gauze around his elbow.

“He’ll be fine.” Sam was impressed by her ability to keep the venom out of her voice.

“Why didn’t you just, like, turn into a ghost and fly away?” Dash asked.

Shaking his head, Danny winced as Sam moved to the cuts on his left hand. “Can’t. The GIWs have anti-spectral weapons. Whatever they hit me with made it so I can’t go ghost.”

Paulina bit a nail. “Did it hurt?”

Sam taped off the gauze, bristling. “He took an energy blast to the back. What do you think?”

“Sam,” Danny said softly.

She deflated. Right. No fighting. Securing the last bandage, she put his hand down. “That should do it.”

Danny nodded, his eyes drooping. “Cool. Now, if no one minds, I think I’m gonna pass out for a few minutes.”

And then he did just that, slumping to his right. Sam caught him and maneuvered his head to rest in her lap as he went boneless. He felt warm, his hair damp with sweat under her fingers. On his other side, Tucker put the first aid kit away and sat against the lockers, resting one hand on Danny’s arm. No one spoke for several minutes.

Then Paulina just _had_ to open her mouth. “Why does goth girl get to hold him? That should be me!”

Sam looked up and glared at Paulina with all her might. _“Don’t.”_

The next ten minutes were spent in a tense standoff with Paulina Sanchez. Sam scratched her fingers through Danny’s hair protectively, counting the hot breaths that hit her thigh. There was no way she was going to let someone like Paulina - shallow, self-centered, flighty Paulina who went through boys like socks - anywhere near her Danny. His infatuation with her was nothing short of infuriating. Couldn’t he see her for what she really was?

Her train of thought derailed momentarily, fingers stilling against his scalp. _Her_ Danny?

The boy in question stirred, shifting in her lap, mumbling. Sam tapped on his temple, her usual wake up signal, and Danny’s eyes fluttered open.

“Hmm?” He turned his head to look up at her, eyebrows pinched in confusion. Danny went to rub his eyes with the heel of his hand, and sucked in a sharp breath when the gauze rubbed against his face, jerking his hand away. “Wha…?”

“Easy, Danny,” Sam told him. “You’re okay.”

Bright blue eyes scanned the room. Then Danny rose, planting one hand on the floor to lift his head out of Sam’s lap. “How long was I out?”

“Less than fifteen minutes,” Tucker told him.

Danny nodded, propping his arm up on his knee. “I need to get home.”

Tucker stood, holding out a hand. “Easier said than done, dude. The GIWs will be looking everywhere for you.”

Taking Tucker’s hand, Danny let himself be hauled to his feet, wincing at the pull on his left shoulder. This was bad. He couldn’t go ghost, he couldn’t turn invisible, he couldn’t fly, nothing. And on top of that, he was injured. Getting him from school to Fenton Works six miles away wouldn't be easy.

Dash smacked his fist into his palm. “We gotcha covered, dude.”

Sam stood, ready to defend Danny. But then Kwan held up a football helmet and jersey, while Dash pointed to the mascot costume on top of the lockers.

Tucker’s face lit up. “Disguises! Now that’s what I’m talking about.”

Sam had to help Danny put on the football gear, nearly hissing when Paulina came too close. She’d silently appointed herself as one of his bodyguards almost a year ago, when he’d first gotten his ghost powers. No one was going to lay a hand on Danny. She would make sure of it.


	6. Nice to Meet You

Danny frowned at the slip of paper in his hands. Detention. Again. Was it really that big of a deal if he was two minutes late to class sometimes? Principal Parkett really had it out for him. He sighed. Three more months of seventh grade, then only one more year of middle school. Then he could kiss this place goodbye.

At least Tucker was joining him this time. It wouldn’t feel like a complete waste of a Friday afternoon with his best friend at the next desk, even if it was impossible to talk to each other with a teacher staring them down. Together they trudged through the halls to the second floor, pushing through waves of students clamoring in the other direction, towards weekend freedom.

“All I did was drop a beaker,” Tucker grumbled. “The school buys those things wholesale, this punishment is unjust.”

Danny put his hand on the doorknob. “Well, at least this way we can get homework done and not have to worry about it over the weekend.” It wasn’t like they had anything better to do. They’d been branded losers on the first day they’d walked into this building, and had no one to hang out with but each other.

Opening the door, Danny scanned the room. It was empty except for the crabby old history teacher that no one liked, and --

He gulped. One desk was occupied, and he couldn’t help the tiny spike of fear that went down his spine. It was  _ that girl. _ The one everyone leaped away from when she stalked down the halls, wore black like it was the only color she could see, and ate lunch alone out by the fences. The one whose stare said  _ mess with me and die. _ Danny didn’t know her name, but there was no mistaking her.

“Mister Fenton, Mister Foley,” the teacher said. “Kindly find a seat.”

He looked around. The girl had taken up a desk in the center of the small classroom, so no matter where he sat, he’d be within one seat of her. He sent a prayer up to whoever was listening that he would make it through detention alive, and sat at a desk one row ahead.

The girl looked up and gave him a neutral glance through her heavy eye makeup, then turned back to the thick book open in front of her.

The clock on the wall ticked in the quiet of the room. Danny managed to get through his math homework relatively quickly, then went for his social sciences textbook. He was crap with this subject, but he had nothing better to do while he waited for the two hours to pass.

After an impossibly long time, the teacher at the front of the room stood. “I’m going to get a coffee, you kids stay in your seats.  _ Or else.” _

The door squeaked as she left. Danny groaned and planted his forehead into the open book on his desk. Time was moving so slowly and he hated social sciences and his empty stomach was starting to growl. This was torture.

A huff of a laugh caught his ear. Against his better judgement, Danny turned to see the girl, still reading her book, a little hint of a smile tugging at her black lipstick. He’d never really gotten that good of a look at her, usually too terrified to be in her presence that he would duck his head and pretend to be invisible. What stood out the most was the shaved side of her head, sort of choppy and uneven in a way that said she probably did it herself. Multiple piercings in her ears, heavy black leather bracelets on her thin wrists, too many rings to count.

Her eyes flicked up to his. Danny’s heart stopped.

“What?” she asked with only a hint of annoyance.

Crap. He’d been caught staring. Danny sputtered and tried to think of something to say, something that wouldn’t piss her off. “Uh.” He glanced at her clothes. “Nice Dumpty Humpty shirt.”

She straightened up a little and looked down. “Oh. Thanks.” She rested her chin on her hand, her eyes flicking back to him a few times. “So, what’re you in here for?”

She was  _ talking to him? _ Danny shrugged as nonchalantly as he could. “One too many tardies. Um. You?”

A lopsided grin split her face. “Graffiting ‘Parkett sucks’ on the side of the gym.”

Danny blinked. “That was _you?”_

“Dunno why they got so bent out of shape about it. It was just chalk paint, washes right off.”

He chuckled before he could stop himself. The girl looked up at him, her eyebrows raised.

“That was awesome,” he clarified. Everyone hated Principal Parkett, but no one was willing to stand up to him. This chick definitely had guts.

She smiled in a way that wasn’t angry, or sullen, or evil looking. She looked… bashful? “Thanks,” she said softly.

It was like her whole face had changed with that one word. Danny examined her. Once he got past the ridiculous amounts of makeup, shaved head, and frown, she was... actually kinda pretty. His eyes drifted back down to her band shirt.

“Hey,” he said. “Isn’t that the shirt from their tour last year?”

She nodded, not looking up. “Yeah, I went to one of their shows in Denver. I’m more of a  _ Mindless Self Indulgence _ kinda girl, but Dumpty Humpty puts on a good performance.”

Danny’s jaw might have hit the floor. He turned in his chair to face her. “Oh man, really? I  _ begged _ my parents to let me go to that show, but they gave me the whole ‘you’re too young’ speech. How’d you get to see it?”

She smiled at him, and it sort of made his throat go dry. “Funny you should ask, it was--”

The door swung open with a bang. The teacher strode back into the classroom with a styrofoam cup in her hand, and stopped to glare at them. “No conversation in detention.”

He turned back to his book. Danny made a genuine attempt to study, but the words blurred in front of him. He just couldn’t focus on this stuff, especially not right now. He heard the girl turn a page of her book and sigh behind him.

A little piece of paper hit his hand. Glancing up, Danny saw a folded scrap of loose leaf on his desk. Slowly and carefully, so he wouldn’t get caught, he unfolded it.

_ gettin cozy w/ miss murder?? _ It read, in Tucker’s chicken scratch handwriting.

He glanced sideways at his friend to see Tucker frowning deeply at him. Danny took out a pencil.

_ she doesn’t seem so bad, _ he wrote, then passed the note back.

The note came back a minute later. _ I heard she bit the head off a bat. _

Danny rolled his eyes.  _ she’s not ozzy osbourne, dude. _

“Gentlemen,” the teacher spoke up, her voice booming in the nearly silent room. “Need I remind you that this is detention, not social hour?”

Tucking the note into his pocket, Danny did his best to at least pretend he was studying. He glanced back at the girl again. She was reading her book, or looked like she was. A little pout pulled at the corners of her mouth. Was he imagining things, or did she look sad?

He put his head forward before she could catch him staring again. Danny thought of all the times he’d seen her before now, and was struck with the realization that she was always alone. He never saw her hanging out with anyone, or even talking to anyone. Everyone made an effort to avoid her. Did she have any friends at school at all?

Not like he had any besides Tucker. People took one look at them, slapped them with a label, and that was that.

He frowned at himself. Hadn’t he done the same to her until now? How was  _ that _ fair?

The bell finally rang at five, and Danny had a crick in his back from leaning over his book. He stood, stuffing his social sciences book in his bag, and popped his neck. The teacher walked out of the room without a word.

“Man, I’m starved,” Tucker said, stretching. “Let’s hit the Nasty Burger. I got a craving for a triple meaty melt.”

“Sounds good to me.” Danny hefted his bag onto his shoulder, then paused. He turned to see the girl, loading her book into a black messenger bag that was studded with pins and patches. Did she have anyone that would hang out with her after detention?

“Uh, hey,” he said.

She looked up at him, surprised. “Yeah?”

Danny rubbed at the back of his neck. Tucker was gonna  _ kill _ him for this one. “You wanna come with us? You can, uh, finish that story about the Dumpty Humpty concert.”

An elbow landed firmly against his ribs. Yep, Tucker was not happy.

She looked a little torn. “Are you sure?”

Danny elbowed Tucker back. “Yeah, the more the merrier, right?” He held out his hand. “I’m Danny, this is Tucker.”

Rounding her desk, she paused for a second, then took his hand and shook it once. “Sam.”

Her hand was surprisingly warm. “Nice to meet you, Sam.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've got plenty more of these in the works, so let me know what you think :}


	7. Esperanto

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Takes place during _Claw of the Wild._

Okay, so summer camp turned out to be a total disaster. As much as Danny had complained about spending two solid months with the guys who used him as a punching bag, he'd been sort of looking forward to it. No ghosts, no GIWs, just some quiet time in nature. A nice change of scenery would have done him good.

It had been a change of scenery, alright, but not the kind he'd hoped for. At least everyone was safe now, still in the oatmeal suspended animation chamber. Was it selfish of him to want one night of peace?

He was actually on Sam's side when Tucker had tried to turn on a slasher flick. After a whole day fighting Walker's goons and a sleepless night before that, he really, _really_ wanted some quiet.

Not that it was really possible with Tucker’s legendary snoring, but he could at least tune that out to some degree.

“Cygnus,” Sam said, pointing up and to the right. “See it?”

He squinted. “Which one is Cygnus?”

Sam tilted her head until it bumped against his. “It's the swan. The stars make the head, then the wings,” she swept her finger back and forth, “And the tail.”

Danny frowned.”I sorta see it, I guess?”

He felt her laugh more than he heard it. “I thought stars were your thing?”

“They are,” he said. “I'm just… behind on my constellations.”

“Well, Astro Boy, if you want a job at NASA, you're gonna have to study more.”

He huffed, then cracked a grin. _“Tre bone.”_

Sam stilled next to him, then laughed. “Busting out the Esperanto?”

“Eh,” Danny shrugged, the motion moving her a little. “I learned some, figured I might as well use it sometimes.”

_“Mojosa.”_

Danny giggled. “Oh, here's one. Um, _Dash estas azeno.”_

Snorting on a laugh that morphed into a yawn, Sam scooted a little closer. “Nice. How about, _ĉi tiu loko estas kiel infero.”_

“I only know ‘infero,’ but I think I get what you're saying. How about…” He flourished his hands. _“Iras fantomo!”_

That made her cackle. “Did you conjugate that right?”

“No idea.”

The campfire crackled, embers popping in tune with the crickets and tree frogs around them. Danny's eyes were beginning to droop as the fatigue caught up with him. The log they were leaning against wasn't the most comfortable, but Sam was warm, radiating heat at his side, her hair tickling his cheek.

Danny smiled as he watched a tiny shooting star track across the sky. _“Vi estas mia plej bona amiko,_ Sam.”

Sam's hand patted his arm. _“Mi sentas la samon,_ Danny.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Translations are purposefully rough because I figured they'd probably learn Esperanto piecemeal.
> 
> Tre bone = very well  
> Mojosa = awesome  
> Dash estas azeno = Dash is a donkey  
> ĉi tiu loko estas kiel infero = this place is like hell  
> Iras fantomo = going ghost  
> Vi estas mia plej bona amiko = you are my best friend  
> Mi sentas la samon = I feel the same


	8. Lucky

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Takes place 15+ years after the end of the series.

“It’s just up this hill, Mister Fenton.”

Danny turned onto a dirt road, thankful he’d decided on the car that had four wheel drive. The road quickly ran out, so he pulled to the side in a patch of grass and parked. It was a nice morning, if a little chilly, the air damp with the remnants of winter clinging to the air as the sun rose over the trees.

The first thing he noticed about the area was how quiet it was. Blissfully, completely, utterly quiet, no traffic or people or industry. Nothing except for their footsteps and birds.

“I have some other properties to show you, if you’re interested,” his agent said. “But I think this one fits what you were looking for the best.”

He led Danny to a wide clearing. It looked like it had been used as a campsite at one point, patches of earth flattened in a way that looked deliberate. He didn’t care much when he turned to the east. They were high enough in the hills that he could see for miles and miles, the early morning light making the forest glow. And off in the distance, the skyline of Amity Park twinkled.

He whistled. “That’s one hell of a view.”

“It’s the main reason I wanted to show you this lot.” His agent flipped through some papers. “Let’s see… twenty three acres, altogether. Been on the market for years with no takers, mostly due to how out of the way it is.”

Turning around, Danny surveyed the space. Wide, open, backed by a dense forest, the Tomo River in plain view a mile down the hill. Apple and plum trees were scattered about, dotted with flower buds that would eventually produce fruit. There was enough room for a home, garden, greenhouse, chickens; plenty of space to raise a family. Only an hour from Amity Park and their parents, and only a thirty minute drive from the conservatory where Sam worked. It was _perfect._ It would be a pretty penny to get construction equipment up here, but it would be worth it.

Danny took a breath. He didn’t need to see any other lots. “I’ll take it.”

His agent laughed. “You sure about that? We’re way out in the boonies. It’s gonna cost you hundreds of thousands to get water and power lines out here.”

He put his hands in his jean pockets and looked back out to the sunrise. “That’s not an issue. We've wanted to go off-grid for a long time.”

“And the missus? What does she think?”

Danny grinned wide. “Nothing, _yet._ It’s a surprise.”

The agent blinked, then looked impressed. “That’s one hell of a surprise.”

Shrugging, Danny did his best to contain his excitement. “Well, ten years is a big milestone. I figured building my wife a house would be appropriate.” They’d actually been together fifteen years, but the date everyone cared about more was the wedding, not when they’d finally started dating in junior year of high school.

“Alright.” His agent folded up the papers and tucked them into his jacket. “If you’re serious, let’s head back to the office and get the paperwork in order.”

Danny took one more glance around the lot. “Yeah.”

\-----

It was three weeks later when he finally convinced Sam to take a day off with him. Her dedication to her work was one of the many things he adored about her, but sometimes it was a battle just to get her to relax.

“Where are we going again?” She asked from the passenger seat.

Danny was ready to burst with excitement. “A friend told me about this nice place up in the hills, so I scoped it out. It’s a perfect picnic spot.”

“Did we really need to drive an hour out of town for a picnic?” She was smiling despite the question. A good sign.

“Why not?” Danny shrugged. “Maybe I wanted some peace and quiet with you.”

He parked in the same place he had last time, and thankfully a bout of rain had washed away the tire prints from his previous visit. With baskets of food and blankets in tow, he led Sam up the path to the clearing. She gasped when she saw the view.

“Oh wow,” she breathed. “Okay, this was absolutely worth the drive.”

Danny spread out the picnic blanket on an even patch of earth. “Told ya.”

He couldn’t have asked for a more perfect day. Gentle breeze, warm sunshine, the air alive with the scent of spring. The hills below seemed to glitter with life, blooming trees and fresh foliage painting the landscape with a myriad of colors. They chatted as they ate the picnic that Sam had prepared, fresh fruit, sandwiches, and his favorite lemon cookies. She tried several times to bring up work, only to have Danny brush his hand along her hair and shake his head. “No work today, Sammy.”

She would roll her eyes and smile, then change the subject.

When the food was gone, they sat in comfortable silence, Sam leaning into his side as he played with her hair. She’d let it grow long again, the streak of white by her forehead that she refused to dye standing out against rich black. He’d often joked that he was the one who gave her those gray hairs.

“The sun comes up right over those hills,” Danny said, pointing out at the scenery in front of them.

“I bet it looks incredible.”

Danny bit his lip for a second, his heart racing. “Oh, yeah. So,” he moved away from Sam and spread out his arms to frame the view. “I’m thinking, bedroom windows face this way, so all that light comes in.” He pointed off to the left. “Greenhouse over there,” He jerked a thumb to his right, “Garden over there.”

Sam blinked at him, then raised an eyebrow. “What are you talking about?”

Standing, Danny flourished his arms around him. “We could live here! Think about how awesome it would be to wake up to this view every morning.”

Sam laughed a little. “Danny, we can’t just live here. This is probably someone’s property.”

Oh, she could not have set him up any better. Danny feigned a pout. “Yeah, you’re right.” He knelt on the picnic blanket in front of her, then went for the paper in his jacket. He unfolded and presented it to her. “It does belong to someone. _Us.”_

Her eyes went as wide as dinner plates. She didn’t move for several seconds, then slowly took the deed from his hand to read it.

“You…” her voice trembled. “You _bought land?”_

He grinned wide. “Yep.”

Sam was stunned into silence, sputtering several times before she managed to form words. “But… that’s… _Twenty three acres?_ Danny, what do you mean you bought it!?”

“I mean, I bought it.” he took one of her hands. “For us. We can finally leave that house the suburbs, like you’ve wanted to for years. We can build our dream home, with solar panels and a water recycling system and a food garden. You can have a greenhouse again.” He squeezed her fingers. “We can finally have enough space for kids.”

Sam’s eyes shone with tears. “How? Danny, this must have cost a fortune.”

He cocked an eyebrow. “What, you think NASA pays me in tee shirts and posters? I’ve been saving for this for years.”

The deed shook in her hand as tears began to fall freely from her eyes. “Oh, Danny.” She flung herself at him, wrapping her arms around his neck. He laughed and held her, nuzzling his face into her hair.

“Happy anniversary, Sam.”

She giggled, her breath stuttering as she cried. “It’s not for another two weeks, you dolt.”

He pulled back enough to press a kiss to her temple. “I wanted to get a head start this year.”

Sam laughed and kissed him soundly. “How am I gonna come up with a gift that compares to this? You jerk.”

He grinned, pushing her down to the picnic blanket. “At the risk of sounding like a bad rom-com, you’re all I need, Sam.”

Her face deadpanned. “Yeah, that’s rom-com territory, Danny.” She leaned up and kissed him. “I’m lucky I snagged you when I did.”

Danny shook his head. “Other way around, Sam. I’m the lucky one.”

They stayed there for hours, soaking up the sun, marveling at the view they would get to enjoy every day from their future home.


	9. No. 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  **Content warning:** Brief mentions of blood and very minor injury.

Around month six of Danny having ghost powers, Sam, Tucker, and he had begun compiling lists of the ghosts he fought to keep track. There were enough repeat offenders that it wasn’t a difficult task, and allowed them to add more info to each ghost. It made things easier on Danny when he’d fight Technus for the eleventh time.

Every now and then, however, something totally new would show up to throw them all for a loop.

“The Apothecary has potions for your ails!” the new ghost shouted, waving bottles of sparkling liquid around. She looked like an old woman dressed in ancient robes, tattered and torn in several places. A trail of people acting incredibly weird had led the three of them to her, each of them with a strange glow in their eyes.

“What did she do to them?” Sam wondered out loud. There was a man near the sidewalk shoving fistfulls of grass into his mouth while laughing insanely.

“No idea,” Danny said, ducking a trash can thrown at him by an old lady who looked like she shouldn’t have been able to lift it. “But whatever it is, we gotta stop her, and fast!”

Tucker had his PDA out. “I can’t find anything about this one,” he called out as they ran, Danny flying just overhead. “And aside from laughing like they’re in a comedy club, all of the victims are acting differently, I can’t figure out what’s in those potions she’s throwing!”

The Apothecary, who was at least fifty feet ahead, abruptly stopped and turned. “The potions are made-to-order, dear boy! Everyone has something that ails them. Why, you…” She focused on Tucker with an unsettling grin. “You’re weighed down by the burdens of modern living! Let me help you!”

Danny tried to intercept, but the bottle flew at Tucker faster than any of them could react. Tucker barely managed to raise his arms to cover his face as it hit him, glass shattering, a cloud of shimmering green enveloping him.

Sam and Danny gasped. The cloud dissipated, leaving Tucker with his arms still raised over his face.

“Tucker!” Danny called. “Are you okay?”

Slowly, Tucker lowered his arms, and blinked. His eyes had taken on the same strange glow that the other victims had, but he looked otherwise unharmed. He looked at the PDA in his hands and frowned.

“Yeah, I’m good,” he said. “Actually, better than good. Why am I carrying this junk around?” He dropped the device, then reached into his backpack and pulled out more electronics. “So much dead weight. What do I need with technology?”

A collection of cell phones, music players, pagers, and handheld games hit the sidewalk as Tucker dropped them. Dusting off his hands, he smiled. “I’m gonna go find a nice patch of grass to enjoy nature. See ya!”

As he walked away, Danny and Sam exchanged glances. “Oh-kay,” Sam said. “Tucker getting to know his tree hugger side is great and all, but this is _not_ how I wanted it to happen.”

“Seconded.” Danny took the thermos from his hip. “We need to be careful Apothecary doesn’t hit us. Who knows what she thinks we’re ‘missing’ from life.”

Sam shook her head at the pile of discarded tech. “Yeah. For all I know, she’ll decide what I’m missing is steak.”

Chuckling, Danny took her hand. “Come on, it’ll be faster if I fly us.”

The weightlessness of Danny’s shared ghost powers was something she’d never get used to. Flying was cool and all, but still scary, and gravity was a bitch. It also drained Danny, and they’d have to be careful he didn’t use up too much energy flying her around. He would need his strength to take her out. Apothecary was turning out to be no joke - half of Amity Park seemed to be affected by her potions. Cars were left in the street, people walked out of stores holding stolen goods with giant smiles, bankers threw handfuls of money at passersby. Sure, everyone _looked_ happy, but it was pure chaos.

“There she is!” Sam pointed. Apothecary had stopped in a square to pelt people with more potions. Danny lowered them both to the ground and released Sam’s hand.

“Hey! Pharmacy school reject! Amateur chemistry hour is over!”

The ghost turned to him, a wicked grin stretching her wrinkled lips. “Oh? You want to stop me? But why, child?” Apothecary gestured at the people below her, laughing and smiling. “They’re all happy. My potions have cured their ails!”

Danny floated up to her level. “You haven’t cured them of anything. They’re not happy, they’re being controlled!”

“Controlled?” Apothecary put a hand on her chest and looked offended. “My dear child, I’ve done no such thing. I’ve set them _free.”_ She raised a potion, glowing pink in the fading daylight. “Perhaps you need to experience my power firsthand!”

The bottle left her hand, but it wasn’t aimed at Danny. Time slowed as Sam watched the potion make a beeline for her, the glass glinting in the light. She barely had time to raise her hands in defense.

Sam heard a shatter, but felt nothing.

When she looked up, she was horrified to find Danny above her, floating in a cloud of pink dust. He began coughing and dropped to the ground, where he crumbled to his knees.

“Danny!” Sam ran to his side, the Apothecary cackling as she flew off. Danny’s coughing tapered off and he put a hand to his head.

This was bad. Very bad. Who knew what kind of maniac he’d become under the influence of one of those potions. Sam tentatively knelt beside him and touched his shoulder. “Danny? Are you okay?”

She could see him blinking rapidly. “I…” he shook his head. “I think so…?”

He slowly stood, looking at his hands, down at himself, then at their surroundings, his eyebrows pinched in confusion. Just like the other victims, his eyes had taken on a strange glow, a little spark of pink in the center of his iris.

“How do you feel? Did anything change?” Sam asked, hoping that maybe his ghost powers had protected him.

When Danny looked at her, his expression shifted. The worry vanished from his face. “Sam…” Tracing the backs of his fingers down her cheek, he sighed. “You’re _beautiful.”_

She frowned. He was giving her the most intense longing puppy dog stare she’d ever seen, even more intense than that time Ember had -

“Oh no,” Sam groaned. “Not again.”

Danny took one of her hands. This was _so bad._ “Danny, no, snap out of it!” She pulled her fingers out of his grasp and gripped his arms. “You’re under a spell, fight it!”

He blinked, suddenly looking dazed. “Spell…?” Danny smacked a hand to the side of his head and grunted. “I’m… that’s right, Apothecary.”

Sam couldn’t help but breathe a sigh of relief. He was at least somewhat himself. “Come on, we need to stop that ghost.”

He stared at her a moment before snapping to attention. “Y-yeah. You’re right. Let’s go.” Danny swung an arm around her waist and shot into the sky, flying in the direction Apothecary had gone.

By this point it looked like nearly all of Amity Park had been affected. Everyone was laughing and smiling, though more and more of them began to look downright creepy, as though invisible hands were pulling the corners of their mouths into grins. It was disturbing. And then there was Danny - for all that he remained coherent, Sam kept catching him staring at her with yearning in his eyes, nearly flying them into the side of a building more than once.

“Danny, focus!” Sam said as he corrected their course. “We gotta take Apothecary down!”

“Sorry!” he said, blushing. “I can’t help it!”

They eventually found the ghost in a town square, sitting on the top of a fountain like it was her throne. Everyone around them was under her influence, giggling and dancing, their eyes glowing.

“Hello, children!” she cooed at them. “Do you see all the happiness my potions have created?”

Off to the side, a laughing woman was emptying all the money from her purse into a sewer drain while a tear slid down her cheek.

“This isn’t happiness!” Sam cried. “You’ve just turned them into mindless puppets!”

Apothecary grinned. “My dear, you seem troubled. Perhaps I can remedy that!”

The ghost raised not one, but several potions, each shimmering in a different color. Sam gasped. She was likely the only person left in the city who wasn’t under Apothecary’s control, and if she got hit by the spell now, there wouldn’t be anyone to stop her.

Apothecary threw her potions. Sam lunged to the side to dodge, but it wasn’t far enough. She braced herself. Then a hand looped around her middle and Sam felt the familiar tingle of weightlessness, her body going see-through beneath her. Danny grabbed her and shot away from where she’d been standing like a bullet, going straight through a nearby brick wall to a storage room on the other side.

Danny’s back hit a shelf and he came to a stop with an ‘oomph,’ Sam still in his arms. Outside, they could hear Apothecary laughing.

“You okay?” Danny asked, his voice next to her ear.

Sam took stock of herself. She felt fine, nothing different. “Yeah, I think I’m good.”

“Good.”

Danny didn’t let go.

If anything, he held her tighter, his arms snugly wrapped around her, one of his hands resting between her shoulder blades. Sam could feel his heart hammering against his ribs where their chests were pressed together.

“Danny, you need to let me go.”

He trembled. “I’m… I’m _trying.”_ He nuzzled his face into her neck, his breath ice cold against her skin. “Sam…”

Sam’s entire body flashed hot. This was _not happening._ “Danny, come on, don’t give in!” She put her palms flat on his shoulders and pushed, but he was too strong. From where his face was tucked against her collarbone, Danny made a small, frustrated sound. Then his arms opened and Sam went stumbling backwards, nearly tripping on a box as she put several feet of distance between them.

Danny slumped against the shelf, one hand to his chest, the other in his hair. He looked dazed, like someone had just woken him up from a deep sleep.

“Sorry,” he breathed. “Sorry. It’s… it’s in my _head,_ and I can’t--”

Sam gulped. Her own heart was racing and it had absolutely no business to. “It’s okay, Danny. Let’s just take out that ghost.”

He shook his head back and forth, like he was trying to clear it. “Yeah. Okay.”

Creeping around the shop, Sam found a window high on a wall, and hoisted herself up to look through it. Outside, Apothecary was flying in circles as people laughed beneath her. “We need a plan.”

Danny floated up next to her. She caught his eye for a second and saw the little glitter of pink that seemed to pulse inside his iris. He stared at her, his gaze going soft, before remembering himself and looking out the window.

“She depends on speed,” Danny observed. “She can throw her potions so fast that even I have trouble dodging them.”

Sam hummed. “What if we slow her down?”

“How?”

Tapping a finger to her chin, Sam frowned in thought. “Apothecary only stops when she needs to throw a potion.”

Danny raised an eyebrow. “So?”

Sighing, Sam let go of the window ledge and let herself fall back to the floor. “I’m probably the only one she hasn’t infected yet. I can be the bait, and you can use the thermos on her while she’s focused on me.”

His feet hit the ground. “Sam, no. I won’t let you get hurt.”

“Danny, we’re out of options! If we don’t do something, everyone in Amity Park is just gonna… _happy_ themselves to death.” Sam put her hands on her hips. Danny didn’t look convinced, and she groaned. This was going to take a little finesse. “Danny,” she said sweetly, batting her eyes at him. “Please? Do it for me?” It made her feel gross to manipulate him like that, use his emotions against him just as Ember had.

An ecto-green flush spread over Danny’s cheeks as his eyes went wide. Then a giant, dopey smile split his face. “Yeah. Okay.”

“Right.” Sam went into battle mode. “Got the thermos?”

Danny took it off his hip triumphantly.

“Alright,” Sam moved towards the opposite wall. “Phase me outside, then go invisible and flank her. I’ll act like I’m trying to escape to draw her attention.”

Danny nodded. “Got it.”

His hand slipped into hers as they both turned intangible and stepped through the wall. From around the building, they could hear the sounds of chaos, as well as Apothecary laughing and singing to herself. Sam moved to hear better, and suddenly found arms wrapping around her from behind. Danny gave her a squeeze.

“Be careful,” he whispered.

Sam felt herself blush. “I will.”

He let her go, her body once again becoming solid. When Sam turned around, Danny was gone.

She peeked around the side of the brick just long enough to see the ghost, flying in lazy circles over the square. Sam would have to play her cards right to give Danny enough time to take her down. With one last breath to steel her nerves, she ran out into the open, making a break for the main road across the way.

“There you are!” Apothecary cried. Sam slid to a stop and turned. The ghost was focused on her, floating over with a potion in her hand.

“Dear child,” she said, “Why do you resist?”

Sam looked around, but she couldn’t see Danny. She needed to stall. “I don’t need your potions!” She declared proudly. “I’m perfectly happy on my own!”

Apothecary tutted. “But you aren’t. I hear the echoes of your heart, sweet girl. I know how it _longs._ You defy it, and it brings you suffering.” The potion floated high above her head as the ghost raised her arm. “I can help quell the resistance that ails you!”

A spike of fear shot through Sam as the potion came sailing for her. She knew it was useless to try to avoid it, but her body moved on pure instinct, her legs turning to run as fast as she could.

She made it two steps before the potion crashed into her back, shattering in a puff of pink. The impact knocked Sam off her feet, stumbling onto the pavement and skinning her knees through her tights. She coughed and sputtered - it felt like she’d inhaled rose scented smoke, sickly sweet on her tongue and in her throat. But it was also sort of pleasantly warm, making her limbs tingle. When it cleared, Sam blinked several times, looking down at her hands. She felt mostly normal, maybe a little giddy, like someone had just given her wonderful news. Looking around, she tried to see if the world looked different. Everything was sort of…. Pink?

“No!” Apothecary’s screech rang through the air. “I gave you _happiness!”_

“The only thing you gave me,” another voice - a wonderful, magical voice - called out, “Was a headache!”

Sam’s heart thumped at the sound of that voice. Danny. She turned to see him activate the Fenton Thermos and pull Apothecary inside in a beam of blue light, the ghost wailing as she went. Danny slammed the cap on as soon as the ghost was out of sight.

Their eyes met, and Danny zipped down to her, nearly dropping the thermos. “Sam! Are you hurt?”

She still felt a little out of it. “Um. I scraped my knees, but…” Sam looked up at Danny, and the whole world seemed to grind to a halt. 

He was surrounded by the shifting white aura that he always was in ghost form, but there was something different about him. Had his shoulders always been so broad? His eyes so intense? Danny was kneeling before her, helping her up, his cool hands on her arms. His touch was electric, making all of her hair stand on end. Closer. She wanted to be _closer._ Her fingers were gripping his shirt before she registered the motion.

“Sam…?”

Danny was _glowing._ Not just his ghost glow, but _he_ was glowing, sparkling in the setting sun like silver and diamonds. Strong, brave, incredible Danny. Sam had never noticed the perfect curve of his nose, or the smooth cut of his cheekbones, or how his bottom lip formed a natural pout, begging to be kissed. And she wanted to, so much, more than she’d ever wanted anything in her entire life. The pain in her knees where she knelt on the pavement didn’t even register.

His hands were on her waist, strong fingers gripping her flesh, pulling her closer. The entire world could have been burning down around them, but Sam couldn’t care about anything other than the boy in front of her, his whole body like a cool breeze against her as he leaned in close. Her fingers went into his soft white hair.

 _“Sam,”_ he whispered against her mouth, desperation in his voice as his lips brushed against hers with a feather-light touch.

She gripped his hair. _“Danny.”_ Sam’s bottom lip caught against his.

The air around them sang, then with a rush it popped. Sam blinked as the pressure changed. It felt like she’d just been slapped awake. What was she even doing?

Blinking, she looked up into vivid green. Danny’s eyes were so close they were out of focus, but she could still make out how his eyebrows pinched together. He let out a little gasp, making a puff of cold air fan out over her face.

Reality snapped like a rubber band. Danny was holding her. They were close. Too close, _way too close,_ his mouth was almost -- Sam’s panic response began blaring as she flung herself backwards with a yelp. Danny did the same, landing on his backside several feet away. Sam’s face was on fire, and from where he sat, Danny’s cheeks were stained bright green with a deep blush.

Had they just…?

Sam gulped.

“Sam,” Danny suddenly crawled to her. “Your legs.”

His hands went to her knees, where the purple nylon of her tights was torn away, revealing a series of bloody, dirty scrapes. “Ow,” Sam said almost involuntarily, finally noticing how much it stung.

“You okay?”

Leaning forward to examine the wounds, Sam nodded. “Yeah, it doesn’t look too deep.” Those were her favorite tights, though. Danny helped her to her feet. All around them, citizens were coming back to themselves, each of them bewildered.

“Where’s Tucker?” Danny asked.

Sam looked around. “Probably in a field somewhere, wondering where all his tech went.”

“Oh boy.”

They caught each other’s eyes, and swiftly looked away. Danny’s face was still tinged green.

“I’ll take you home,” he said, his voice wavering. “So you can clean up those wounds.” Before Sam could protest or suggest they find Tucker first, Danny had scooped her up, one arm under her back, the other under her knees. One of her arms went around his neck, like always when they flew like this.

Tucking her face against his neck, Sam fought against the fire in her cheeks to no avail.

Danny brought her straight to her room, phasing through the wall and setting her on her bed. As soon as he stepped back, an intensely awkward silence blanketed the room. He rubbed at the back of his neck and looked anywhere but at her.

“I, um, better go find Tucker. You gonna be okay?”

Sam poked at her knees. “Oh, yeah. This is nothing, you should have seen some of the scrapes I got in mosh pits. I’ll be fine.”

“Okay.” Danny floated towards the wall, then looked back once. “Later, Sam.”

Then he was gone.

Sam sat on her bed, as still as a stone, for several minutes. Then she hauled herself up to go for the first aid kit in her bathroom. In her reflection in the mirror, Sam’s face was still tinged pink, and she reached up to touch her lips, feeling the ghost of a memory of Danny’s hovering against them.


	10. A Wednesday Night in March

It had been a relatively quiet night for Sam. Homework, whoop Tucker’s butt in an online game, listen to her favorite death metal album after dinner. Her mom was actually getting good at cooking with seitan and tofu, the meal she’d made was halfway to decent this time. Sam smiled. They were trying, and she could appreciate that.

All that was left for the night was to get a little reading in, and then a good night’s sleep. She picked up her latest horror novel and opened it to the middle where her bookmark sat.

Three quiet taps came from her window.

There was only one reason she’d hear tapping on her second-story window. Sam closed her book, had a glance around her room to make sure nothing embarrassing was out in plain view, and went to pull back the curtains. Outside, almost invisible, was Danny, floating on the other side of the glass.

Sam frowned. It was almost eleven o’clock, and Danny never came over this late. She waved him in and closed the curtain once he was inside. Changing back into a human, Danny’s shoulders slumped under his hoodie.

“Danny, what’s up?”

He didn’t move, facing away from her. Walking around him, Sam was greeted with Danny’s pinched face, his eyes red and wet.

Sam gasped. He looked two seconds from a breakdown, and she couldn’t remember the last time she saw him like this, if ever. She silently led him to her bed and directed him to sit before darting across the room to lock the door. When she returned to sit at his side, Danny was silent for a long time.

“Got in a fight with my parents,” he finally said, sniffling wetly.

She took his hand and squeezed it. Daniel Fenton did not let himself be vulnerable often. He was the type to tough it out, get angry, or find some way to physically work out his emotions. This was bad.

“What happened?” she asked softly.

He looked around her room, then rubbed at his face with his free hand. “I wanted to tell them. Jazz said she’d back me up, but…” Danny huffed, his arm flopping back down to his side as he shook his head.

Sam frowned and scooted a little closer. “What did they say?”

Danny wiped his nose on the sleeve of his hoodie. “I asked them if they thought ghosts could be, y’know,  _ good. _ It was Jazz’s idea. But they just…” His hand gripped hers. “They just went on their  _ ‘ghosts are bad, Danny, don’t be naive, you can never trust a ghost’ _ shtick. They wouldn’t even listen to me.”

Sam sighed and ran one of her hands up and down his back and waited for him to continue.

“I just… lost it,” Danny said, his voice cracking. “I told them their obsession was messed up, and that I was tired of it. I asked Mom if she had to pick between me and a ghost, who would she pick?”

Biting her lip, Sam dreaded the answer. “What did she say?”

“Nothing.” A tear finally slipped down his cheek. “Like, she couldn’t even answer. She doesn’t -” his voice cracked again, and he swallowed to steady it. “She doesn’t even know if she’d choose her own fucking son over a ghost.”

Danny never cursed unless he was deeply upset.

“I told them that I wished I had normal parents, and left.” He took a shuddering breath and went quiet. Sam looped an arm around his neck and pulled him into a hug, where Danny dropped his face to her shoulder and trembled.

“I’m so tired of lying to them,” he whispered between sniffles. “But if I tell them, they’ll treat me like an experiment. They talk about me - my ghost form - like I’m a menace to the world. Mom once detailed how she wanted to capture and dissect me.”

Sam sighed. The words ‘that’s not true’ and ‘they’ll love you anyway’ were on her tongue, but she held them back. It probably wouldn’t help very much right now. Danny had come to her, not Tucker, because she also knew what it felt like to have parents that refused to understand, even if hers didn’t dangle ill-placed threats of violence over her. So instead she just held him, let him soak her shirt with his tears. It was a long time before he finally calmed down, pulling away from her to wipe at his puffy face.

“Thanks,” he said, his voice thick. Sam brushed another tear away with her thumb.

“Sit tight, okay?” She released his hand and stood. “I’ll go get you a snack.”

Danny nodded. “Can I use your bathroom?”

Sam smiled. “Sure, but try to keep quiet. My parents might wonder how I’m in the kitchen and in my bathroom at the same time.”

That got him to smile just a tiny bit.

Sam’s parents had already retired to their room, which was a very good thing, because otherwise her mom might wonder why she was making a turkey and cheese sandwich and hot chocolate with dairy milk at eleven at night. Or at all. But she doubted Danny would appreciate a tempeh arugula wrap quite as much.

She made it back to her room without being intercepted, thankfully, and found Danny sitting on her bed, his shoes and hoodie removed. He looked like he’d washed his face, his eyes a little less red. “Here,” she said, handing him the plate.

Danny’s eyebrows shot up to his hair as he examined the sandwich, then he gave her a lopsided grin. “You touched meat with your hands for me? Wow.”

Rolling her eyes, Sam offered the mug. “I wouldn’t do it for just anyone, you know.”

He smiled softly. “Thanks.”

Sam turned on her TV, surfing channels until she found a station playing an edited-for-television version of Jaws - one of his favorite movies. Danny moved to the floor to eat, and together they watched in silence. Once the sandwich and hot chocolate were gone, Danny scooted back to lean against her mattress, drawing his knees up to his chest.

“I don’t want to go home yet,” he admitted softly.

Sam put a hand on his shoulder. “Then stay. I’ll get you a pillow.”

That’s how Danny ended up sleeping on her floor on a random Wednesday night in March, curled up under a black knit blanket next to her bed. He’d have to go home and face the music in the morning, but for now, he was safe. Sam draped one of her hands over the edge of the mattress, and felt Danny’s warm fingers clasp hers.


	11. Overshadowed

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A rewrite of the episode _Lucky in Love_ in which Kitty successfully overshadows Sam instead of Paulina.

As much as she’d slunk to the bathroom with her cape drawn up to her disaffected scowl, Sam was fairly embarrassed to have been caught smelling less than savory at Floody Waters. And for it to be Danny to notice she stank - well, that was just icing on the cake. She should probably rethink her whole ‘goths don’t sweat, we simmer’ stance, especially on a day as hot as today. Washing her hands, she pondered a dip in the pool to cool off.

Looking up into the mirror, Sam saw a flash of movement behind her, a pair of red eyes staring into hers. Then it all went dark.  
  


Wherever she was, it was suddenly very bright. Sam put a hand to her head as a wave of dizziness swept over her. What happened?

“Sam?”

She looked up. Danny’s face hovered over hers, his expression a mix of worry and horror. He was lit from the side by a bright light, and after a few seconds, Sam registered his arms around her. He was holding her? Why? Where were they? She thought she could see the neon sign for the bowling alley glowing above them.

“Danny…?” She reached for him. Why did she feel so sluggish?

“Uh oh.” That was a woman’s voice, a bell of recognition ringing somewhere in Sam’s mind. But before she could identify it, the world was swallowed by black.

  
  


Sam came back to her senses, her vision filled with red and white. It took a few seconds for her eyes to focus. A plaid pattern was under her hands. Blinking, she glanced around. A picnic basket, trees and grass all around her. The plaid was on a blanket below her, spread out over the lawn. Putting a hand to her head, she tried to figure out how she got there, but came up blank.

“Don’t you dare hurt one hair on his greasy head!”

She knew that voice. On the grass several feet away was Johnny 13 and Kitty. Sam snapped to attention. What were they doing here? Where was --

Danny was there, floating in ghost form as he talked to the two ghosts. Sam tried to focus on what he was saying, but it felt like her brain was stuffed with cotton, her thoughts slow and heavy. She felt like she’d just woken up from a nap that had run way too long.

Johnny and Kitty boarded his motorcycle, then drove into a ghost portal. Danny followed, blinking out of reality briefly before coming back out. The portal closed behind him, and Danny zipped to her side.

“Sam,” he said, taking one of her hands. “Are you alright?”

She grimaced. “Kinda dizzy, but I think I’m okay. What happened?”

Danny’s grip on her hand tightened as he changed back to his human form. “U-um.” Color flooded his cheeks. “You were overshadowed. By Kitty.”

Groaning, Sam tried to stand. She wobbled a bit, and Danny put an arm around her back to support her. “Wait.” Sam looked around, and down at herself. She was back in her regular clothes. “The last thing I remember was being at Floody Waters. How long was I overshadowed?”

Danny’s cheeks turned even redder as he grimaced. “...Five days.”

Her train of thought ground to a violent halt. “Wait, five - five _days?_ You can’t be serious!”

“Sam,” Danny bit his lip. “I’m sorry--”

“Danny!” Sam threw up her arms in disbelief. “How could you let me be overshadowed for a _week?”_

“Listen, Sam--”

“I don’t remember anything! Oh god, what if she made me do something crazy--”

“Sam, please, just listen to me--”

“What if she made me _eat meat?_ Oh jeeze, I’m gonna be sick. Danny, what the hell happened!?”

_“Sam!”_ Danny gripped her arms. “Kitty and Johnny had a fight so she overshadowed you to get close to me and make Johnny jealous and I didn’t realize it was her for days and now everyone thinks we’re dating!” The words tumbled out of his mouth in a single, rushed breath.

Sam blinked slowly as it sank in. Danny just stared at her, a deep blush staining his face all the way to his ears. She took a step back, pulling herself out of his grasp. Five days. She had no memory whatsoever of the last five days.

Danny gulped. “Sam, I’m so sorry.”

The last thing he’d said caught her attention. “What do you mean, everyone thinks we’re dating?”

Pulling at his collar, Danny looked like he was sweating. “She… she was trying to get back at Johnny, so she used you to, uh, come on to me, and…”

Numb shock was all Sam could feel as Danny stammered out an explanation. Then it slowly gave way to anger. “And you just - just _didn’t notice_ that it wasn’t me?”

“I was a little distracted, Sam!”

She seethed. “By _what?_ What could distract you so much that you couldn’t see that your best friend was being used as a _meat puppet?_ Wouldn’t your ghost sense be going off non stop!?”

The flush on Danny’s face spread down to his neck. “That’s… um…”

Sam’s anger overrode her curiosity, and she clenched her fists. “Oh, forget it! I’m going home!”

Then she stomped away, not looking back.

\-----

Her mother set a plate of steamed squash and peas in front of her, but Sam didn’t want to eat. She was fairly sure she’d never have an appetite again.

“Sam?”

Picking up her fork, Sam forced down a few bites.

“Samantha, honey, is something wrong?”

Looking up, Sam expected her mother to have her usual disapproving scowl, but instead she looked genuinely concerned. Sam sighed and poked at her food.

“It’s nothing, mom.”

Her parents exchanged glances. “Did that Fenton boy do something to upset you?”

God, but they were so spot on. But it wouldn’t do her any good to tell them that. “Everything’s fine, mom.”

Her mother wiped her mouth with a napkin. “Samantha, I know that I can’t tell you what to do with your life, but I warned you that boy is bad news. You can do better than him.”

Sam groaned and shoved her plate aside. Did even her parents think she and Danny were dating? Had the news spread that far? “I’m going to bed. Night, Mom. Night, Dad.”

Neither of them tried to stop her.

After a shower, Sam toweled off her hair and put on her pajamas. Did she have homework? There was no way to know. Five days. There was a hole in her memory five days wide. Curling under her covers, she concentrated on anything that might give her a hint of what happened. She could feel a warmth, a brief flash of pain, hear distant laughter. Arms around her. Sam focused as hard as she could. For the tiniest moment, she was surrounded by stars, high above the clouds, Danny holding her close and kissing her softly.

Then the image was gone.

Sam hugged her pillow and cried herself to sleep.

\-----

She normally met Danny and Tucker halfway to school, and the three of them would walk together. That morning, Sam took a completely different route that brought her to the other side of Casper High. The last thing she wanted was to have any unnecessary run-ins with Danny Fenton.

Sam piled the entire day’s books from her locker into her bag. The fewer trips she had to make to it, the less of a chance for an encounter. Naturally, as she went to close the metal door, Sam glanced to her left. Eight lockers down was Danny, his hand on the door of his own, looking at her with unabashed shame.

She slammed her locker shut and walked in the other direction.

The rumors hit her by second period. Whispers in the halls, people gossiping, _I heard Fenton and Manson broke up,_ and _wow that didn’t last long._ It made Sam want to scream. She’d barely had time to properly process what had happened, and already she and Danny were the talk of the school. At lunch, the ghost boy in question was nowhere to be seen, but Tucker meekly joined her at a table with his tray of cafeteria food.

“You okay?” he asked softly. Sam looked up from her salad and glared with all her might.

“Tell me, Tucker. Could _you_ tell that I was possessed by a ghost? Because apparently Danny couldn’t.”

Tucker held up his hands in defense. “Hey, Kitty made a really convincing you! And I wasn’t around you that much, you were always alone with--”

He stopped, and was suddenly very interested in his food. They ate in uncomfortable silence for several minutes.

“Does he even understand why I’m mad?” Sam asked, mostly to her meal.

Tucker hummed in thought. “Because he couldn’t tell you from a crazy ghost trying to make her boyfriend jealous for a week straight, or because you finally got to be with him and don’t remember any of it?”

Sam nearly threw her fork at him.

“Look, Sam.” Tucker pushed his tray aside. “We’re both really sorry. Like, seriously, we feel like the biggest assholes on planet earth. But as soon as Danny figured out what was going on, he didn’t stop until he figured out how to trick Kitty out of you.”

Her head was starting to pound. “Couldn’t he have just, I don’t know, gone in me and forced her out?”

Tucker frowned. “He tried. It didn’t work, and it looked like it was hurting you. Not to make a bad cat pun, but Kitty really had her claws in you deep.”

The tiny flash of pain that she remembered suddenly made sense. Sam put her head in her hands. She was exhausted.

“Talk to Danny,” Tucker insisted. “I know you’re mad, but he really cares about you, Sam. You know he would never hurt you on purpose.”

Sam didn’t respond, and didn’t move until the last lunch bell rang and she was late for class.

\-----

Blasting her favorite death metal album at full volume could usually make anything better. Heartache, frustration, anger, they were all soothed by screeching guitars and graveling vocals that chanted about death and despair.

It wasn’t helping much that night.

With a sigh, Sam hit the remote to shut off the stereo and tossed it away. Her ears were ringing sharply. She was still angry, but also bitter and sad. How long had she had a crush on Danny Fenton? Eighth grade? And she’d had to watch him drool over other girls for ages, listen to his daydreams about marrying Paulina. He never included her whenever he’d talk about girls, because Sam was just the best friend, and probably always would be.

Tucker was right. One of the things that stung the most was that he finally noticed her, only to have it actually be someone else.

Three quick taps came from the window. Groaning, Sam rubbed her eyes and stayed put. She didn’t want to deal with him right now.

More taps. He wasn’t giving up, apparently. Sam huffed and climbed out of bed, stomped to the window, and yanked open the curtain.

Just outside, Danny floated in ghost form. In his hands he held a little box with a sticker from an upscale bakery. He lifted the lid to reveal a triple vegan brownie deluxe, her favorite dessert, complete with black licorice frosting and candy skull sprinkles.

_Peace offering?_ He mouthed.

Sam stared him down for a few minutes before walking away from the window, but leaving the curtain open. She heard him phase through the glass, a flash of light bouncing across the room.

“Sam,” he said softly. “I know you’re mad, and you have every right to be.”

Crossing her arms over her chest, Sam didn’t turn to face him. “You have no idea.”

“And I’m sorry,” Danny said. “I messed up. I’m a jerk and I should have noticed right away that it wasn’t you. I was just…”

She finally turned around, putting her hands on her hips. _“Distracted?”_ Sam growled, recalling his own words. “By what?”

“By -- I mean, it’s…” the box of sweets shifted in his hands, and Danny paused to put it down on a table before running his hands through his hair. “Look, it all really caught me off guard, okay? You just - I mean, Kitty just - just walked up and _kissed me,_ and…” His face was rapidly turning red.

Sam threw her arms wide. “And that didn’t raise suspicion? You didn’t think that was out of character for me? Dammit, Danny, you know me!”

He had the decency to look embarrassed, but stayed silent.

“Answer me!” Sam demanded, her eyes beginning to sting. “Were you just so happy to have a girl finally notice you that you didn’t care about anything else?”

“No! That’s not it!”

“Then _what?”_

_“I like you!”_

Danny had nearly shouted the words, his face glowing red. Then he slumped and smacked a palm to his face. “I like you,” he repeated softly. “A lot. I have for a long time, I was just… too chicken to admit it.”

Sam just stared at him. Her entire brain had stopped functioning.

“So that’s why I didn’t realize it wasn’t you,” Danny rubbed the back of his neck. “I was just so swept up in thinking you actually liked me back. That whole thing about rose colored glasses? Turns out it’s true.”

Blinking, any thought or argument Sam might have had in her dissolved into white noise. Danny liked her. “Why didn’t you ever say anything?”

He gave her a pleading look. “I figured I wasn’t your type, and... I didn’t want to ruin our friendship.” He sighed. “I guess I did anyway, huh.”

Sam slowly added up the math in her head. Her long time crush had actually felt the same way this whole time, and neither of them ever knew. She couldn’t stop the laugh that burst out of her throat. This was hilarious.

“Uh,” Danny grimaced. “Why are you laughing?”

She snorted despite herself, completely and absolutely _done._ “This. I can’t believe this. I’ve had a crush on you for who knows how long, Danny. But I never told you for the same reasons.”

The flush on his face rivaled the red on his shirt as he stared wide-eyed at her. His mouth slowly split into a goofy smile. “Really?”

Sam felt oddly smug, crossing her arms over her chest. “Yeah.”

Danny smacked himself in the face again. “I’m an idiot.”

“Only a little.”

He laughed, a chuckle that was maybe a little crazy, and Sam joined in. “What happens now?” Danny asked.

It was cheesy, it was cliche, it was horribly predictable, but Sam didn’t care. She walked right up to Danny, held his gaze for a moment, then kissed him. He froze against her, sucking in a quick breath through his nose. Then his mouth softened against hers, his head tilting with a sigh.

Their lips smacked as they separated. Sam looked at Danny, his pupils blown wide, biting his bottom lip. “Hey, I wanna show you something.” he whispered.

“Okay.”

He wrapped his arms around her middle and shifted into his ghost form, sending a chill wafting over her. “Hold on to me.”

As soon as her arms were around his neck, he made them both intangible and shot through the ceiling. Her house zoomed away, Amity Park quickly becoming miniature as Danny soared higher and higher, the entire city disappearing from view as they entered a cloud. Wind whistled around them, louder and louder - and then it all stopped, both the sound and Danny.

Sam opened her eyes, not even remembering having closed them, lifted her face from where she’d tucked it against his neck, and gasped.

All around them, as far as she could see, was an ocean of stars, glittering against an inky dark sky.

“Wow.”

One of his hands inched higher on her back. “Amazing, right? Once you get far away enough from the city lights, you can see the stars a lot better.”

She pressed herself closer to him. “It’s incredible.”

“I thought you’d like it.”

Sam’s eyes locked with Danny’s, glowing green against the night sky. “Hey,” he said. “Wanna be my girlfriend? For real this time?”

She grinned. “Think you can handle me? I’m no pushover, you know.”

His smile was sweet. “I’m counting on it.”

Danny’s kiss was cold, like the air around her, but Sam didn’t care.


	12. Memory

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The episode _Memory Blank_ from Danny's perspective.

Danny walked to his locker alone after the final bell, his bag slung over one shoulder. Another day, another series of boring classes, jerk jocks, and questionable cafeteria food. He’d expected a lot more from high school, honestly, after all the movies and shows he’d watched had hyped it up to be some kind of transcendental experience into adulthood.

So far, ninth grade was just eighth grade with lockers big enough that he could actually fit inside them when the bullies decided he should get acquainted with the inside. Except that here he had Jazz, and what a wonderful thing it was to have his big sister badger him daily to join a club or a sports team or whatever.

He just wanted to keep his head down for the next three years and hope that he made it out of Casper High alive.

Tucker met him with a high five on the second floor, shutting his own locker.

“So,” Danny said, pulling his math book out. “We doing anything later?”

Tucker flicked through his PDA and shrugged. “Nope. According to my schedule, we’re free every night until college.”

Sighing, Danny loaded the book into his bag. It wasn’t that he wanted to be a superstar or anything, but he hadn’t expected to be _this much_ of a loser. The only person who could tolerate his company, it seemed, was Tucker. Maybe he could make another friend sometime before graduation.

“Hey.”

Glancing up, Danny was struck for a second. A girl was standing next to them, and a weird looking one at that. He’d never seen her before, and there’s no way he’d forget that face. Purple lipstick wasn’t exactly a common makeup choice. Danny shot Tucker a look.

“Do I know you?” He asked her.

The girl rolled her eyes. “Oh, ha ha. I said I wished we’d never met, and now you’re pretending not to know me. Cute.”

Tucker caught Danny’s eye, asking silently if he knew her. Danny rifled through his memories as quickly as he could, but came up blank. “No, seriously,” he told her. “Who are you?”

Cue Tucker hitting on her, which got a pretty negative reaction. He loved his best friend, but could he maybe not go after every girl he saw? Watching him get shot down time after time was exhausting.

A roar broke through his thoughts. Down the hall where Mikey was being shoved in a locker, something huge and green was stomping down the corridor. Danny squinted. What the hell? What was with this school?

The air around him went cold as a glowing blob floated up to him. It formed into a face, unsettling and unearthly, not quite solid as it shifted like smoke.

Danny’s heart stopped.

A ghost.

It was a _ghost._

His parents weren’t crazy, there was a ghost in his school, right in front of him, a freaking _ghost_ holy _crap --_

“Boo,” it said.

The panicked, high pitch scream that tore out of him was mostly instinct. His stomach had soared up to touch his tonsils before plunging down to his feet. A ghost. He was probably going to die here.

“Danny!” the weird girl grabbed him. “What are you doing, why aren’t you going ghost?”

Two things registered. One, she was strong, way stronger than she looked. And two, she was probably _batshit crazy._

“Look, kid,” Danny said as he shoved her away. “I don’t know what your deal is, but I’m outta here!”

Then he ran. There was no way he was staying in this school. He’d heard stories of Casper High being haunted, but he’d always figured it was just old wives tales. Apparently not. Danny didn’t stop running until he was several blocks away, leaning on his knees to catch his breath.

“Danny!”

He looked up and frowned. The crazy girl from before was running towards him, her combat boots stomping on the sidewalk. When he’d wished girls would pay more attention to him, this wasn’t what he’d meant.

“Leave me alone,” he told her, and kept walking. She came up beside him.

“Danny, you gotta listen to me. This is all wrong!”

He set his gaze forward. Maybe if he ignored her, she’d get the hint.

“Look,” she continued. “I know this is gonna sound crazy, but you and I are best friends, and you have super powers, and you fight ghosts. You’ve been protecting Amity Park for months!”

Stopping, Danny narrowed his eyes at her. “You have a very vivid imagination.”

“I’m serious!” she cried, throwing her arms into the air. “That ghost back there, it’s a ghost that grants wishes, and--"

“Oh my god,” Danny held up his hands. _“Enough._ And I thought my parents were nutjobs.” He turned to keep walking home, but she followed him. Was this creepy? It felt sort of creepy.

“Please,” she tried again. “I’m Sam! We’ve been through so much together!”

He’d never been so happy to see the door of Fenton Works. Danny huffed and walked up the stairs, then turned to face her and counted on his fingers. “Let me see if I have this straight. You want me to believe that I have super powers, fight ghosts, and am best friends with a girl I’ve never met before?”

She gave him an odd look. “Yes!”

While it was a little rude to literally slam the door in her face, he didn’t think there was any other way he could make himself clear to her. After all that, he just wanted to take a nap.

\-----

Tucker called him after dinner. “Hey man, you okay?”

Danny flopped onto his bed. “Yeah, I guess. That girl followed me home.”

“Say what?” Tucker squeaked. “The crazy girl from earlier who was acting like she knew you?”

“Yep. She kept insisting we were friends, and some nonsense about me having super powers.”

Tucker laughed. “Oh man. Now that would be awesome.”

Danny switched the phone to his other ear and rolled onto his side. He was completely worn out. “Not really what I was wanting when I said I hope a girl notices me.”

“Yeah.” A game over sound came from Tucker’s end of the line. “She was kinda cute, if you’re a fan of goth stuff.”

Huffing in amusement, Danny pictured the girl. She’d said her name was… Sal? Sue? Something like that. “She did have pretty eyes, I guess.” They were a strange shade of blue-purple that had glittered at him, oddly complimented by her heavy eye makeup. “Not exactly my type, though.”

“I dunno. She might be exactly the kind of crazy that’s good for you.”

Danny felt his cheeks go warm. “Maybe. It would be nice if she’d just, y’know, talk to me like a normal person. The whole ‘pretend we know each other’ thing doesn’t really do it for me.”

Tucker snickered. “Well, next time you see her, tell her that. You still wanna grab ice cream after school tomorrow?”

“Oh yeah.” Danny glanced at his book bag. “I gotta go, I haven’t even started my homework yet.”

“Later, dude.”

After Tucker hung up, Danny stared at his ceiling for a while.

\-----

Thursday classes dragged. Danny kept his eyes on the clock more than anything, begging the minute hand to move faster so he could get out of there and be one step closer to his weekend. Ice cream with Tucker on Thursdays had become something of a tradition for them, and now it didn’t feel like the week was complete until he’d had at least two bouts of brain freeze.

He saw the girl a few times, in the hallways and sitting in the back of his history class. Every time she’d catch his eye, she would look so sad, like he’d broken her heart.

Danny sighed and tried to focus on what the teacher was saying. Maybe he should apologize for being so cold to her yesterday.

He didn’t see her again after school, despite actually looking for her. It was like she vanished into thin air as soon as the final bell rang. Shrugging, Danny gathered the books he’d need for weekend homework, confirmed with Tucker they were meeting at the usual spot, and swung by his house to drop off his bag.

The ice cream cafe was crowded, as it always was after school. It was the one place where social divisions between teenagers dissolved; jocks sat next to nerds, weirdos and preps shared tables. As long as everyone had something frozen and sugary, there was a silent truce that none were willing to disturb. With a cone of strawberry pecan crunch in his hand, Danny joined Tucker at the only empty table, sitting with his back to the wall so he could stare at Paulina across the room.

“Had any more run-ins with the mysterious goth girl?” Tucker asked, playing with his PDA.

Danny took a lick of his ice cream. “Nah, I think she might be avoiding me. Every time we made eye contact, she looked like a kicked puppy.”

Tucker looked up. “Dang. What did you say to her?”

Huffing, Danny shrugged. “I dunno, I didn’t think I was being that mean--”

“Hi,” came a voice. “Mind if I join you?”

He looked up and was promptly stunned into silence. It was that girl - it took him a second to recognize her, because her black clothes and makeup had been replaced with tons of _pink._ She looked soft and sweetly feminine, from her dainty sweater to the little bow in her hair. It was such a departure from the bristly, spikey girl he’d met yesterday that Danny couldn’t help the grin that split his face. She was _really_ cute.

He more or less shoved Tucker out of his seat to make room for her.

The girl had barely sat down before she slammed a photo album in front of him. It was full of photos of himself and Tucker, and her, wedged in like she belonged there. He wasn’t sure whether he should be flattered or creeped out. Turning the page, Danny stopped. A photo of the three of them was taped to the page, and the background he’d know anywhere. “This is my parent’s lab,” he said softly. Looking up, he searched her eyes. “Who _are_ you?”

Her hand touched his arm, and Danny felt a wave of goosebumps prickle over his skin. “I’m Sam Manson,” she explained. “Your _best friend._ But we had a fight, and I wished we’d never met, and that wishing ghost made it come true.”

Okay. Ghosts. Danny was getting a little tired of ghosts by this point.

Right on cue, the door to the parlor was broken down. Nightmarica, the crazy horror villain, came clamoring through. Danny rubbed one of his eyes. He thought he might be seeing things, but all around the parlor, people had begun screaming and panicking. His scoop of strawberry pecan hit the floor as he stood and backed up against the wall. 

“Danny!” Sam shook him. “Come on, you gotta…”

He was frozen in place. There was a ghost in here, huge and horrible with giant claws. Were they all going to die?

Sam let go of him. “Crap. I gotta!”

Danny stayed as flat as he could against the wall, willing himself to melt through it. Everyone was trying to escape - except Sam, who looked like she was actually going to fight the thing. She was absolutely insane. How do you fight a ghost?

His question was answered as she took out a whip, a ray gun, and what looked like his dad’s ghost thermos, and proceeded to _kick ass,_ throwing the ghost around like a ragdoll _._ His heart thumped inside his chest as he watched her, tough as nails and utterly fearless. He’d definitely judged her too quickly before, Sam was _awesome._

The ghost screeched as it was pulled inside the thermos, and the awful stale coldness that had flooded the room upon its arrival vanished. Once his knees stopped shaking, Danny managed to peel himself away from the wall and walk over to Sam, who capped the thermos.

“That…” his voice cracked a little. “That was amazing! How did you know how to do that?”

She blushed a little. “That kind of thing happens a lot. You don’t remember, but I do.”

Danny frowned. This was way too elaborate to be a joke or a ploy. “Alright,” he told her. “You got my attention.”

\-----

Sam had all but dragged them out of the ice cream parlor, and while Danny was thankful to not have to stay to help clean up, nervousness was starting to mount in his gut. Sam had explained the deal with the portal twice now, but it all felt way too big. Tucker kept twirling his finger at his temple as she spoke, unconvinced.

They had to loiter around while they waited for Danny’s dad to leave the lab. He offered to make them sandwiches, but Sam declined one, citing strict vegetarianism. He frowned at the fridge. Meat, cheese, and more meat. The only thing he could offer her from the Fenton family kitchen was a glass of water. “So,” he coughed, sitting next to her. “You know about my parent’s lab?”

“Better than I should,” Sam sipped her water, leaving a little smear of purple on the brim.

“Hmm.” Danny looked at the ham and swiss sandwich he’d made for himself. “Sorry, this is still super weird.”

She nodded, then her face brightened up as she leaned a little closer to him. “You keep a nautilus shell under your bed as a good luck charm. You found it on the beach while on a family vacation when you were eight.”

He blinked at her. “I’ve… never told anyone but Tucker about that.”

Sam gave him a lopsided smile. “You told me.”

Blushing, he returned to his food. If he’d told her about the shell, then they must have been really close. How close? She’d said best friend. Was that it? He’d barely known her a day, but she seemed so cool, like someone he could really be himself with. There was a little sadness in knowing they weren’t more, but he shoved the feeling aside as his dad came out of the lab and announced he was going out for supplies.

“Now’s our chance!” Sam jumped out of her seat and all but bolted for the lab. Danny and Tucker stood to follow her.

“Dude,” Tucker whispered, “I don’t know about this chick.”

Danny watched Sam run down the stairs. “Yeah, it’s weird, but… I sorta feel like I can trust her for some reason.”

Tucker gave him a deadpan stare. “Fifty bucks says you two end up together.”

Danny felt his cheeks go hot as he glared.

Down by the portal, Sam was fiddling with controls, looking very much like she knew what she was doing. It made Danny more than a little nervous - his parent’s inventions weren’t always stable, and more than one had literally blown up in his face before. But those ghosts - like the one in the ice cream shop - what would have happened if Sam hadn’t stopped it? Would people have gotten hurt, or worse?

“Here.”

Something was tossed his way. Danny caught it with a surprised yelp, looking down to find one of the spare jumpsuits in his hands. He glanced at the portal again.

“What’s gonna happen when I go in there?”

Sam frowned. “I don’t really know. You never described it much, you just came out half ghost.”

He had his legs in the jumpsuit, then stopped. “This is gonna hurt, isn’t it?”

She looked sad. “Probably.”

“Great.”

He hauled the jumpsuit over his shoulders and zipped up the front. He was about to steel his nerves and walk in the portal when Sam ripped the patch of his dad’s face from the front of the jumpsuit, and slapped a vinyl symbol in its place. “Uh, what is _that?”_

“Trust me,” Sam grinned.

Danny tried to ignore how his legs were shaking and walked into the portal. It was quiet, his footsteps making tinny echoes bounce around the metal framing. He’d seen the schematics for it many times, though most of it was way beyond him. He ran his hand along the wall as he walked. How was it so dark in here?

His fingers hit something, a button, or maybe a switch. Danny wasn’t trying to press it, but he felt it click beneath his hand.

A spark fizzled in front of him. Then the whole interior of the portal lit up, circuits and panels glowing all around him. Turning, he saw Sam and Tucker outside, Sam with her hands clasped together over her heart, like she was praying.

Then it hit him.

_Pain._

Pain like nothing he’d ever experienced, white hot, angry, burning him from the inside. His blood was on fire, it felt like his skin was being ripped from his body. His bones crumbling, muscles dissolving, every last cell exploding. Screaming, he was screaming, a horrible inhuman screech tearing from his throat as his vision went dark. It went on, and on, and on, not stopping. A bright light sparkled in the distance, beckoning him. Danny reached for it.

And then it vanished.

His feet hit the floor, or at least he thought they did. It didn’t really feel like he was in his own body, more like he was standing just to the left of it as he stumbled out of the portal. Everything was sort of floating, his vision tunneling. He was so dizzy.

“Danny!”

His knees finally gave out and Danny sank to the ground, every inch of him buzzing, like a limb that had fallen halfway asleep. Why couldn’t he catch his breath?

A pair of hands hooked under his arms and pulled him up. Vertigo slammed into him and Danny groaned, dropping back to the floor.

“It worked!” he heard Sam exclaim from somewhere far away. “You’re a ghost! Again!”

He looked down at himself, flexing his hand. For a second he thought he could see his bones through the glove. Since when was the glove of the jumpsuit white? “I’m a ghost,” he mused softly, feeling slowly bleeding back into his arms and legs. His body felt feather light. “I’m a ghost! Cool!” Danny managed to stand, noticing the hair on the edges of his vision was white instead of black. “Is this cool?”

Sam touched the emblem on his chest. “The coolest.”

“Danny!”

He froze in place. His dad was back. And he was a ghost. His dad was back and Danny was a _ghost,_ this was so bad.

“Danny, quick, change back!” Sam urged.

Glancing down at himself, Danny briefly blue-screened. “Change back?” he asked. “I can do that? _How?”_

She looked lost. “I don’t know, you just think about it or something!”

His dad’s footsteps, loud and hard, were coming down the stairs to the lab. Tucker was beginning to panic by the door, diving behind a desk to hide.

“Danny, where are you?” His dad’s voice was coming closer.

Human, he needed to be human again. And fast. Danny closed his eyes and tried to focus on it, on the image of himself he knew, black hair and regular skin, not ghostly. A strange ripple passed through him that made him gasp. When he opened his eyes and held up a hand, it was his own skin, not a lab glove. The bit of hair he could see above his eyes was no longer white.

He sighed in relief.

“You’d better not be messing around in the lab!”

Crap, his dad, Danny could see his shadow. He was going to be so grounded for being in the lab for no reason, and bringing in non-family, including a random girl--

The solution was painfully simple.

Danny reached for Sam, gripped her arms, pulled her to him, and kissed her.

There was something so _familiar_ about it, the scent of her skin filling his nose, the weight of her body in his arms. Sam froze up, letting out a tiny squeak as their lips mashed together. He could feel her starting to melt against him.

_“Hey!”_

His dad’s shout startled them both, and they jerked apart. “Dad!” Danny’s voice cracked. “Uh, it’s not what you think--”

Seeing Jack Fenton stomping towards them was more than enough to strike terror into Danny’s heart. “Danny, this is no place to be goofing around! Both of you, out! And we’re gonna have a _talk_ later, mister.”

They were both dragged out of the lab, which gave Tucker a chance to escape out the back door. Danny saw Sam out, stopping on the front porch.

“Sorry about the, uh, _fakeout makeout,”_ he said, keeping his voice down. “I had to do something or my dad would start asking way too many questions.”

Sam’s cheeks were almost as pink as the sweater she’d been wearing earlier, but she was smiling. “It’s cool.”

Danny rubbed the back of his neck, suddenly very, very nervous. “I’ll see you tomorrow?”

“Yeah.”

He watched her walk away, not going back inside until she was out of sight.

After dinner and what was possibly the most embarrassingly awkward conversation he’d ever had with his father, Danny flopped onto his bed and stared at the ceiling. He was pretty sure that kiss with Sam in the lab had been his first, if it could really be counted. He couldn’t remember ever kissing a girl, but it still felt like something he’d done before.

He reached up to touch his lips, and sighed.

\-----

When he’d woken up the next day, Danny had figured having ghost powers would be fun.

He’d never been so wrong in his _life._

While he had the power, he didn’t have the slightest idea how to control it. So far, his head had gone invisible in the boy’s bathroom and sent some poor kid screaming, he’d sunk through floors, his pants had dropped, and he’d crash landed out of his seat because his arm went through Sam’s chair when he tried to lean on it. The day was only half over.

By the time the lunch bell rang, Danny was exhausted. He trudged to a tree in the school courtyard, nearly collapsing beneath it. His mom had packed him a bag lunch, but he was so worn out that his appetite was long gone.

“You know, I’d heard high school could be tough, but this is insane.”

Sam and Tucker sat beside him. Tucker took out a triple meat sandwich, while Sam opened a plastic container, revealing a salad.

“You should eat something, Danny,” Sam said softly.

Sighing, Danny opened his lunch bag and went straight for the packaged brownie. Maybe some sugar would cheer him up. “So what’s the plan?”

Sam put down her fork. “You’re gonna have to defeat Desiree, the wishing ghost. She gets more powerful every time she grants a wish, and there’s a meteor shower tonight. With everyone making wishes, she’ll be unstoppable.”

“Right.” Danny chewed the brownie. “Fight a crazy powerful ghost with powers I barely know how to use.”

Sam touched his arm. “Tucker and I will back you up. Right, Tucker?”

From his other side, Tucker raised an eyebrow. “Danny’s been my best friend since second grade. I’ve got his back.”

He had to smile at that. Danny could always count on Tucker, no matter what. Blinking, a thought occurred to him. “Hey Sam, how did we meet?”

She smiled a little. “Seventh grade, in detention. I was the brooding loner kid, and you were the first person to give me a chance.”

Danny supposed that made sense. He saw his fair share of detention during middle school, though Sam was absent from his memories. What did she look like back then? What did he say to her? He reached out and took her hand, though he wasn’t sure why. “I can’t believe I could ever forget someone like you.”

Sam blushed, squeezing his fingers before pulling her hand away to continue eating.

“Fifty bucks,” Tucker whispered. Danny elbowed him.

\-----

Paulina’s quinceañera roared at the country club just down the hill, music echoing as people laughed and danced. Sam had her binoculars out to survey, and while Danny tried to stay alert and focused on the task at hand, he couldn’t help but feel like he was missing out on the party of the year.

“Everyone cool with the plan?” Sam asked.

Danny huffed, feeling nervous sweat start to dampen his shirt. “No, not really, but it’s gotta be done, right?”

A shooting star sailed overhead, sparkling through the night sky. “Okay, Danny, you’re on!”

He took in a deep breath and concentrated. He’d attempted to change into a ghost a few times that day, while alone in the locker room and again in the bathroom at home. He’d managed it both times, but quickly lost it. He didn’t quite understand how to keep it - how to hold on to the strange feeling that quivered through his body, the way his chest went cold and his vision became oddly sharp. Danny at least knew how to get the ball rolling, squeezing his eyes shut to feel the ripple pass through him.

When he opened his eyes, he glanced down to see the black and white jumpsuit, the stylized D on the front standing out. He was definitely glad Sam had changed it. It would be a little embarrassing to be stuck with his dad’s face on his chest.

He heard a woman’s voice, cackling loudly. The ghost from school the day before rose from the ground. Was she even bigger now?

“You got this, Danny!” Sam yelled. “Take her down!”

Her words gave him a burst of confidence. He could do this.

Desiree swatted him away like an insect, Danny sliding to a stop and sitting up to spit out a mouthful of grass.

He could _not_ do this.

He had no idea what he was doing, how to use these powers, or the - the thermos Sam had tossed him. What was he supposed to do with a _thermos?_ Desiree was destroying him, and he was like a shaking baby deer, barely able to stand on his own, let alone fly. Dread pooled in his stomach as monsters began popping up all around them. He was sore and aching and would probably be black and blue if he survived this, and that was looking more unlikely every second. There was no way. A ring of magic whipped around him, locking his arms against his chest and squeezing.

“I wish Danny and I had never had that fight!” Sam suddenly yelled. “And I wish Danny, Tucker and I remembered everything and his costume stays the way it is because I really, really like it!”

Desiree laughed. “So you have wished it, and so shall it be!”

A white light flashed through Danny’s vision. His head exploded in pain as memories began to slot themselves into place one by one. Learning how to use his powers, fighting ghosts - but most importantly, _Sam._ Meeting her in seventh grade detention. Their first outing to the Nasty Burger together, and finding out she didn’t eat anything with a face. His initial trip into the portal on her suggestion, and dying inside only to somehow come out in one piece. Sam at his side, supporting him, being his backup. He saw the memory of her at the dance, in her sparkling dress as they danced alone in the empty gym to the last song of the night.

The pain in his head vanished. With all his memories restored, Danny knew exactly what to do. A beam of energy shot from his hand and straight into Desiree, knocking her off balance long enough for him to activate the thermos and pull her inside.

 _I gotta stop granting every wish I hear,_ the ghost lamented from inside.

“Danny!” Sam rushed to him. “Danny, you’re back!”

She looked like she might have been glowing a little, the meteors that sparkled above them shining in her eyes.

“Yeah,” Danny said softly.

\-----

Danny slurped his soda as the action movie blared on the screen in front of them. The party had looked cool, and he’d promised Paulina, but he promised Sam _first._ And now that he knew what his life was like without her - boring, predictable, fade-into-the-wallpaper grey, he was more thankful than he’d ever been for her presence in his life.

Slowly and discreetly, he lowered his hand below the arm rest and found hers to hook their pinky fingers together. Sam glanced up once at him, her cheeks tinged red as they both returned their focus to the screen, not letting go until the credits rolled.


End file.
